ROGELIO DE LA ROSA
Government positions held: Senator and Diplomat
Previous employment: Actor

Rogelio de la Rosa was the first actor to rise to national prominence as a politician. Although three decades separated him and his successor Joseph Estrada, it was de la Rosa who first proved that actors could make the crossing from film, theater, and later television, to the Senate, a chamber then thought to be the exclusive domain of the erudite.

De la Rosa came from a breed of movie stars the likes of which the country no longer sees, in the same manner that the pre-martial law Senate that welcomed him is a far cry from what it is today. In his time, senators were eloquent orators, the perfect company for de la Rosa, who is said to have been a champion debater and orator in his college years.

De la Rosa was elected to the Senate in 1957 and served until 1965. He ran for president in 1961, but withdrew shortly before election day, stacking the odds in favor of his brother-in-law, Diosdado Macapagal, whose first wife Purita was de la Rosa's sister.

His early Senate record shows that he filed bills relating to fisheries and agriculture, such as the nationalization of the rice and corn mills and the gradual nationalization of the rice and corn industry. De la Rosa co-authored the bill creating the Board of Censors for Motion Pictures, the precursor of today's MRTCB (Movie and Television Review and Classification Board).

After his stint at the Senate, de la Rosa shifted to the foreign service where he became dean of the diplomatic corps. He was appointed ambassador to Cambodia, the Netherlands, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. He tried returning to Congress by running for a seat in the Batasang Pambansa in 1984 but lost. He died in 1987.

JOSEPH ESTRADA
Government positions held: Mayor, Senator, Vice President, President
Previous employment: Action Star

Joseph Estrada remains the best argument against electing actors to public office, or at least letting them walk the corridors of absolute power.

He entered politics at the height of his career in the movies, where he was packaged as a man for the masses who, in the end, always managed to beat his oppressors. Estrada capped his nearly 30-year political career - as mayor, senator, and vice president - with 30 months of one of the most decadent presidencies the country has ever seen.

By the time he reached Malacañang, he had perfected the political art of illusion: he managed to make people believe, for two and a half years, that he was fulfilling the duties of the presidency when in fact he was attending only to the perks that went with it.

Filipinos will probably never know the actual extent to which Estrada and his cronies damaged the economy, but it is believed that what is now publicly known barely scratches the surface - filching tobacco excise taxes and social security funds, taking bribes from illegal gambling operations, getting commissions from businessmen-friends doing deals with government, living a lavish lifestyle, and flaunting his many mistresses.

These, however, were enough for Congress to initiate impeachment proceedings against Estrada, the only president so far to have undergone that experience. Hints of Estrada's complicity in smuggling and illegal drugs surfaced during the impeachment trial, but his allies in the Senate prevented impeachment lawyers from any further pursuit of those charges.

Estrada, however, was thrown out of office and has been detained in a government hospital suite for 19 months now as he faces charges of plunder. Already, the Department of Justice has presented more than 40 witnesses to testify against the former actor, with 25 more to go till prosecutors rest their case.

Despite his political misfortune, Estrada's name and legacy live on. He managed to establish his own dynasty in his hometown San Juan, where a son, Jose Victor (JV) is the incumbent mayor. JV inherited the post from his half-brother, Jinggoy, who himself followed in their father's footsteps as action star-turned-politician-turned-detainee.

VICENTE SOTTO III
Government positions held: Vice Mayor, Senator
Previous employment: Comedian, songwriter, recording company executive

By the time the 1992 elections were held, the post-Marcos mass media had flourished, Joseph Estrada had logged five years as senator, and the public was getting used to the idea of showbiz personalities running for public office. That year, two were elected to the Senate: comedian Tito Sotto and action star Ramon Revilla.

Sotto's four-year stint as vice mayor of Quezon City became the springboard for his senatorial ambitions. Even then, he had packaged himself as a crusader against illegal drugs and campaigner for youth welfare.

Sotto topped the 1992 race for the Senate, where he brought with him his causes, especially the one on illegal drugs. But as he set his sights on higher political ground, Sotto was cut down by a scandal from which he has never quite recovered.

In 1997, while he was chairman of the Senate committee on illegal drugs, Sotto and his aide were accused of harboring links with the drug lord Alfredo Tiongco, who is alleged to have financed the senator's 1992 campaign. Sotto denied any ties, although he did admit seeking police protection for Tiongco who, the senator said, approached him after allegedly receiving death threats.

Before the Tiongco fiasco, Sotto's name was being floated as a possible presidential candidate who could be fielded against Joseph Estrada in the 1998 elections, or at the very least, as a contender for the vice presidency. The drug scandal scuttled his plans for higher office. In his next run for the Senate in 1998, he fell to number five spot.

Sotto remained one of Estrada's closest allies in the Senate and stood by the fallen president through his last days.