Dra. Loi Ejercito-Estrada: Once the ‘phantom wife,’ but true soft power

Erap and Dra. Loi during her 92nd birthday celebration recently

In the late ’50s, Dra. Luisa Pimentel and Joseph Ejercito as young dating couple

Jackie Ejercito during the 92nd birthday celebration

It was a kiss that launched dozens of snapshots and swoons.

After 63 years of marriage, former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada showed that he still had—for want of a better word—the hots for his First Lady, Luisa “Dra. Loi” Ejercito-Estrada. The 85-year-old ex-politician surprised everyone when he gave her a smooch during the celebration of her 92^nd birthday at the Rigodon Ballroom of Peninsula Manila. It just wasn’t a peck but, how shall we put it, a collision of lips.

The event also launched her memoir, Love, Mommyla: My Memories of Nine Decades, where Dra. Loi says that she was, in every sense of the word, his “first lady”—above all his other women. (Mommyla and Daddylo were terms of endearment given to the couple.)

During the traditional blowing of birthday candles, Erap, her eight grandchildren, re-elected senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada and wife Presentacion, Jacqueline “Jackie” Ejercito, Jude and his wife Rowena gathered around the wheelchair-bound celebrator. Dra. Loi’s stoic expression softened and her eyes turned tearful amid this outpouring of love.

The ballroom was filled with floral bouquets in white, old rose and blue, the latter being the color of the Ejercito-Estrada clan. Dra. Loi wore a muumuu (long column dress) with blue foral prints, designed by Paul Cabral, while her husband and sons wore Erap’s signature blue sports jackets.

A decade ago, Loi’s former adviser, Gabby Lopez (not related to the business leader and former chairman of ABS-CBN), suggested that she do a memoir that bared her real persona. Concise and incisive, Love, Mommyla reveals Loi’s viewpoint, especially as the wife of one of the most controversial, albeit misunderstood, politicians.

Born June 2, 1930 to a humble family in Iba, Zambales, Loi was determined to be a doctor. Her mother scrimped just to be able to send her to medical school at the University of Santo Tomas. During her residency at San Lazaro Hospital, she came across a post on a job opening at the National Mental Hospital (NMH). This gave her the idea to specialize in psychiatry.

Dra. Loi found professional fulfillment at NMH which eventually sent her as fellow-trainee to three hospitals in Melbourne. On her return, she was tasked to set up the psychiatric ward at the Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao.

Her romance with Estrada has been written about often. Here was this errant college dropout who was sent by his father to work at NMH, to keep him out of trouble. Seven years Loi’s junior, he started out as ambulance driver, then rose to clerk. He was attracted initially to her hourglass figure, while Dra. Loi was drawn to this handsome hospital orderly who lavished her with attention.

She would fall for him, especially after she found out that Estrada sold newspapers just to be able to buy her a Titus watch

Her colleagues, as expected, frowned on the budding romance—she being a doctor and he from the rank andfile. Dra. Loi’s mother herself sensed that his devil-may-care attitude augured trouble.

But she would fall for him, and who wouldn’t? Especially after she found out that Estrada sold newspapers just to be able to buy her a Titus watch for her birthday. No matter that she caught him drunk at night. Soon enough, Dra. Loi would see his wayward ways when they became a couple and he an action star whose career was on the rise in Philippine movies.

Ignoring the naysayers, they got married, in secret, in 1969. In her memoir, Dra. Loi talks about Estrada’s honest desire to be in public service and then his achievements.

In his 17 years as the progressive mayor of San Juan, Estrada never introduced her as his wife. She candidly talks about the challenge of balancing a medical career and raising children while having an absentee husband and father who had other relationships. Some women audaciously claimed to be his “wife” in official functions.

Leticia Jimenez-Magsanoc ‘exposed’ Dra. Loi as the legal spouse of Erap

When Estrada was elected senator in 1987, Leticia Jimenez-Magsanoc, then editor in chief of Sunday Inquirer Magazine, “exposed” Dra. Loi as the legal spouse of Erap— that her role finally had been “validated” after 28 years of being a “phantom” wife.

In the book, Dra. Loi narrates how her charities and political life had been embedded in her husband’s political trajectory. Her involvement with the Senatorial Spouses Foundation thrust her in the public eye and in charity fundraisers for Estrada’s Erap Para sa Mahirap Foundation. She formed her own, Masa ang Riwasa ni Erap, better known as MARE, as the counterpart of Estrada’s advocacy.

She takes a subtle dig at how, in 1992, then President Fidel Ramos named then Vice President Estrada as chairman of the Presidential Anti-Crime Commission, as a “ploy” to keep him at bay and “to set him up for failure.”

In the memoir, Dra. Loi portrays Estrada as a hero like in his action films—despite allegations against him and his administration.

Estrada won the 1998 presidential elections by a landslide. Dra. Loi chose to project herself as the First Lady who made a difference. As the “First Lady ng Masa,” she focused on medical and educational programs.

The Malacañang wedding of Jackie to conglomerate scion Beaver Lopez was a milestone for Dra. Loi. She cites the late Joe Salazar as her favorite—he designed Jackie’s wedding gown and her own terno.

The Ejercito-Estradas’ stay at Malacañang became short-lived when then Ilocos Sur governor Luis “Chavit” Singson accused Estrada of securing a cut from illegal jueteng operations. He was also charged for allegedly getting kickbacks and with plunder and “receiving P100 million as donation from government funds supposedly from MARE.”

Dra. Loi stood up for the Erap Para sa Mahirap Foundation in the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing to defend the funding of mobile clinics and free dialysis clinics.

The corruption charges sparked a chain of events—the impeachment trial, protests at Edsa Shrine led by Jaime Cardinal Sin, and the withdrawal of support from the Armed Forces, and his forced resignation. Dra. Loi believes that Estrada’s ouster was the result of a political plot. She names the late Chief of Staff Angelo Reyes and then senator Orlando Mercado as those who turned their backs on him. She made sure, the book story goes, that the family kept its dignity even as it left Malacañang in 2001.

After Estrada was unseated, he urged Dra. Loi to run for the Senate, confident that people still believed in him. Winning her Senate seat a few months after “Edsa People Power 2” would be his vindication, he believed. From 2001 to 2007, Dra. Loi authored 121 bills and 13 resolutions and pursued her medical missions, even as she visited Estrada faithfully in jail where he served time for plunder. Candidly she mentions, in the book, the “off days” when the “others” would take their turns visiting.

After the Senate stint, Loi was just happy to retire and enjoy a grandmother’s life, continuing the services of the MARE, and playing mahjong.

She initiated the renovation of the chapel and revived the daily Masses

In the homily of her birthday Mass at The Pen, Fr. Domie de Guzman said that Dra. Loi’s greatest achievement as First Lady was to restore spirituality, quietly, at Malacañang. She initiated the renovation of the chapel and revived the daily Masses. He described her as determined, quiet, low key, but whose soft power influenced many. “She’s frank. If she doesn’t like something, she will not deny it,” said the priest.

Jackie reminded TheDiarist.ph that when Estrada served as Manila mayor, in 2016, long after his presidency, Dra. Loi handed over the reins to Jackie as the chairperson of MARE.

“We did medical missions thrice a week,” she recalled.

Although MARE was inactive during the pandemic, she still hopes to raise funds from the sales of Love, Mommyla to jumpstart medical missions and feeding programs. Jackie’s vision is to expand the scope of MARE into organizing projects for education and for nurses, and to apply for foreign grants.

Jackie said a typical day of her mother was playing mahjong with the nurses, the family, and sometimes with Estrada.

During the pandemic, Jackie worked on the book, unearthed her mothers’ old notes and even a film negative of a young Loi lazing on the Zambales beach. This precious photo was used as book cover.

Jackie’s eyes moistened when asked how she saw her parents in their twilight years. “I might get emotional here,” she said. “They see each other every day. They live in the same house—in San Juan.”