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This book gives an insider perspective of how and why former president Joseph ‘Erap’ Estrada lost the presidency in a people’s uprising also known as EDSA People Power 2 in January of 2001.

The authors, Aphrodicio and Eleanor Laquian both served Erap in his short tint as president. Estrada appointed Aphrodicio Laquian as his chief of staff while Eleanor Laquian also helped in the internal management of a small unit in Malacañang called TOP or The Office of the President. The Laquians only stayed in what they described as the “snake pit” for merely six weeks from February to March 2000. Their appointment was racked with intrigues because of the internal politics inside Malacañang. Erap was reportedly angered after Laquian joked about how Erap’s midnight cabinet made important decisions for the country. The midnight cabinet referred to was Erap’s late night drinking buddies. On March 24, 2000, the Laquians went back to Canada after an embarrassing and well publicized falling out with the president.

The book is a product of the authors’ personal experiences inside Malacañang, their personal interaction and relationship with Estrada and their knowledge of the political system. The thesis of this book was presented by its authors in the first chapter.

“Our primary thesis in this book is that, despite his many personal flaws, the tragic end of the Estrada presidency cannot be blamed on the president’s personal traits and individual characteristics alone. Rather, what happened to the Estrada presidency should be seen in the total contexts of the Philippine political culture. We propose that in this case, President Estrada should be seen as a typical Filipino, embodying in his persona many characteristics that make the Filipinos what they are.”

The first part of the book narrates the series of events and controversies surrounding the Estrada presidency, which eventually led to its downfall. The authors described the Philippine political system as a “pragmatic” political system where “each political group pushes its own ends but enunciates these as manifestations of public good.” Certain characteristics of the Philippine society led to this kind of politics, particularly cited in the book was the huge gap between the rich and the poor that produced “functionalism and the tayo-tayo principle.”

The second chapter is an in depth look at the impeachment trial of Estrada and the events that followed leading to EDSA. The impeachment trial as discussed has always been a political and not a judicial trial, with particular emphasis on it being a numbers game and the particular strategies made by the prosecution and defense panels. The authors believe that the impeachment trial damaged the institution of the presidency and the legislature, the Senate in particular, since the chamber did not even have the appropriate rules for the trial and the senators were perceived to be voting for their own personal interests. The judiciary, on the other hand, gained positive review for Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Davide’s impartial handling of the trial. The authors shared the idea of other political analysts that the events following the trial showed the fragility of our democratic institutions.

“In contrast, the tumultuous events that followed the ’second envelope vote’ in the Senate impeachment trial revealed the fragile nature of democracy in the Philippines.”

The next chapter is a historical and behavioral look at the Philippine presidency, from the time of the first Philippine president Emilio Aguinaldo to Estrada’s administration as the 13th president of the Republic. It also provides an economic and cultural context to explain the Philippine political behavior through the years, similar to what was described by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism in their study about the Philippine legislature, published in the book Rulemakers. Like our legislators, the president is also seen as behaving in the context of the Philippine culture s/he grew up with.

The fourth chapter is a look at Estrada’s personality seen through the eyes of the authors as well as other family members and friends. A lot of interesting anecdotes were used to establish the fact that Erap was not as evil as he was portrayed in the controversies that surrounded his presidency. For the readers, this is something new, to see Estrada in a different light as professed by people who knew him well. The transformation of Estrada from a rebellious kid to an actor and politician and to his short stint as president was well documented by the authors. Despite the negative experience from their relationship with Estrada, the Laquians really believed that he was not evil.

“After carefully analyzing the president’s persona, especially in the light of the circumstances that led to his impeachment and downfall, we have concluded that Erap was not a bad man. We truly believed that he was sincere in his desire to help the poor. As we often said during the 1998 presidential campaign, his heart was in the right place.”

Chapter 5 documents the first one hundred days of Erap as president and his appointments for key positions in the Cabinet. The authors described clearly how Erap was greatly influenced by his so-called friends and allies in politics. The authors are of the opinion that Estrada did not use his power to appoint persons in the Cabinet wisely and he did not have a clear legislative agenda. In this chapter, the Laquians narrated how they were offered positions in Malacañang by Estrada, the spoils given them and the tension between them and the other officials inside the Palace. It was evident that everyone wanted to be close to the president because of the power and influence that came with it. The authors were critical of the wrong practices in the Palace done by the people who ran it . Being inside the system then proved to be an advantage to the Laquians for they were able to observe closely how Malacañang was really ran by the people close to the president.

The next chapter identified the people behind President Estrada, his political and business allies, the technocrats and his close friends, the who’s who in the executive department. This book is perhaps a first of its kind since it accounts the important people behind the president’s decisions. Again, the Laquians used their own knowledge and observations in writing this chapter, even describing who gets who from the president and what the president gets in return for the favors.

Chapter 7 is all about the role of the armed forces in the ouster of President Estrada. Estrada is portrayed as someone brash and undisciplined contrary to the well-disciplined nature of the military. He was heavily criticized for his lack of knowledge in history and apparent lack of sensitivity to the Islamic culture as seen in his decision to an all out war against the Moro insurgency in Mindanao. The authors provided some anecdotes from their dialogues with Erap and it showed the President’s level of understanding of the insurgency problem. This chapter also discussed the role of the heavily politicized military to the uprisings in EDSA People Power 1 and 2. The withdrawal of support by the military as the main stabilizer in Philippine politics was evident in these two events.

The next chapter described the relationship of the President to various sectors of society—the masses, the political, business and political elites, the left, the media and the middle class. It showed how the dynamics of his relationship with these sectors have greatly influenced his eventual ouster from office.

A separate chapter discussed the contribution of civil society to the uprising in EDSA including the various people’s organizations, the left and the Church. The final chapter provides an analysis of what the Estrada experience has brought to Philippine politics. Because of the revolving door policies of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration, the authors concluded that nothing much has changed in Philippine politics after EDSA 2.

“The same patterns of political accommodation of those who helped Macapagal-Arroyo attain the presidency are becoming apparent. Former President Fidel Ramos has been appointed envoy extraordinary, back to indulging in his favorite foreign travels at public expense. Former Speaker Jose De Venecia is poised to return to the House of Representatives and reclaim leadership..”

The authors used both a functional/behavioral approach and a systems approach in their analysis of Erap’s failed presidency. Because they were close to Estrada, it was easy for them to study his personal and work behavior that influenced his decisions. Estrada had a personal management style and this was aptly explained in the book. He was a person who valued his family and friends more than anything so it was easy to understand the way he acted and why most of his actions favored his friends and family. These revelations wouldn’t be possible if the author did not know his or her subject well enough and for that, the authors must be credited for studying their subject well.

On the other hand, knowing the subject too well may become a problem for other readers since the credibility and biases of the authors may be in question. In this case, the Laquians used to be friends with Estrada until he removed Prod Laquian as his chief of staff after he latter’s confessions about the President’s midnight cabinet. For some readers, the revelations in this book may look like something Ilocos Sur Governor Chavit Singson would say. Singson admitted that he testified about the jueteng payoffs against former friend Erap because he was furious when the Bingo 2 Ball franchise in Northern Luzon was not awarded to him. For this, some would probably question the credibility of the accounts told in this book so it is a challenge for the authors to find sources other than themselves to prove their point.

The anecdotes from people close to Estrada is also important in writing if one is to capture the personality of the subject. It is an advantage for the Laquians that they knew the Estrada family well and this adds to the credibility of their story. The strength of this book really is the fact that most of its inputs come from the first hand experiences of its authors and the analysis comes from an insider perspective.

Using a systems approach, the book tries to paint a whollistic picture of the Estrada presidency, knowing that the political system does not exist in a vacuum. It does not take for granted the fact that Philippine politics is a product of a unique Philippine culture and that the political system exists in its own unique environment.

“Philippine society is an Oriental one, it reflects an indigenous Asian culture. Thus, political events in the Philippines, such as the tragic end of the Estrada presidency can only be properly understood in the specific context of Philippine society.”

The authors were careful to discuss the contributing factors to the political system, i.e., the political and economic environment, the various actors in Estrada’s ouster like the civil society, the military, politicians, media, the Church and other leaders. There was enough research put into identifying and explaining these variables. Aphrodicio Laquian’s background as a political scientist, contributed to this better understanding of the political system.

Another strong point of the book is its analysis of the implications of the Erap experience to the present system, as discussed in the final chapter. It explains the lessons from the Erap presidency and its long term effect to the political development of the country. This is a good ending for the book for it provides options for the development of Philippine democracy as noted in its conclusion.

“This means that Macapagal-Arroyo and her supporters should refrain from engaging in corrupt activities that will be too obvious to an alert and militant citizenry. They should pursue genuine pro-poor policies and programs and not rely on spin doctoring and propaganda like the Erap administration. They should promise little and deliver a lot. If they are able to do this, the prospects for economic and political development in the Philippines for the next decade will be bright indeed.”

The book was written in a popular and readable style, even including Erap jokes from text messages and e-mails. It appeals to the intrigue hungry audience, who long wanted to know what the Laquians think of what happened to Erap since their falling out with the deposed president.

On the other hand, one weakness of this book is that it lacked consistency in its tone of writing. There is an effort to make it appealing to a mass audience, thus, the use of insightful and interesting anecdotes, text messages and e-mails. However, this was not consistent in the whole book, as shown in the latter chapters of the book when the tone shifted to a more academic discussion. There is also the tendency to shift points of view. Because this is a first-hand experience, the authors used the first person point of view in some paragraphs but again there was also the problem with consistency.

Another weakness of this book is its tendency to discuss more than what is required for a certain related topic. The authors should be credited for giving background information but sometimes the tendency with giving too much information on various topics is that you lose your readers’ attention and you tend to veer away from the original thesis of the book. Perhaps, the authors did this because the book is really catered for an international audience. A lot of discussion may be good material for another book. It would have been more interesting though if the authors wrote more about their observations inside the ’snake pit.’

I also noticed a factual error in the book. When it discussed the role of the Church to the Erap ouster, the authors identified the El Shaddai as a born again charismatic movement. The El Shaddai, although led by a lay person Bro. Mike Velarde, is still identified with the Roman Catholic Church and is under its supervision.

Despite a few setbacks, this book has achieved its goal to provide an insider perspective of what happened to Estrada. A lot has already been written and said about Estrada and his ouster but this book is unique and fresh in the sense that the authors have their own stories to tell the public about Erap. The authors are quick to clarify that the stories they revealed in the book is not a way to get back at Estrada. There was that challenge for its writers not to be affected by their own biases in making their analysis.

“The book is not a disclosure of the wrongdoings of Estrada to settle old scores nor an apologia for his personal shortcomings that damaged his leadership. Rather, it explains how Erap struggled with the exercise of power. It places Erap’s presidency in the context of Philippine political history and Filipino values and culture. It explores the implications of Erap’s removal from office on the prospects for economic development and democracy in the Philippines. The strength of the book likes in its inside stories about life in the Malacañang ‘Snake Pit’ and the author’s analysis of the events from their unique insider/outsider perspective.”

Aside from its analysis of the Erap presidency, this book has also allowed its readers to take a peek at Malacañang as an institution and the internal politics inside what the authors called the ’snake pit.’