Conrado Masonsong Estrella III (born September 12, 1960) is a Filipino politician serving as the 15th

secretary of agrarian reform The secretary of agrarian reform ( Filipino: ''Kalihim ng Repormang Pansakahan'') in the Philippines is the head of the country's Department of Agrarian Reform and is a member of the president's Cabinet. Powers and functions According to t ...

since 2022. He previously served as a representative for Abono Partylist from 2013 to 2022 and for Pangasinan's sixth district from 1987 to 1995 and from 2001 to 2010. He was previously one of the deputy speakers of the 18th Congress under the leadership of first of Speaker

Alan Peter Cayetano Alan Peter Schramm Cayetano ( Tagalog pronunciation: ajɛˈtano born October 28, 1970) is a Filipino lawyer, diplomat, and politician serving as a senator since 2022 and previously from 2007 to 2017. He was the Senate Minority Leader from 2 ...

and then Speaker

Lord Allan Velasco Lord Allan Jay Quinto Velasco (born November 9, 1977) is a Filipino politician and lawyer who served as the Speaker of the House of Representatives from October 12, 2020 to June 2022. He is concurrently serving as the Representative of Marin ...

Early life and education

Estrella was born on September 12, 1960, in

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

to former Congressman Robert B. Estrella Sr. and Ma. Teresita Masonsong-Estrella. He is the grandson of Conrado Estrella Sr., a former governor of

Pangasinan Pangasinan, officially the Province of Pangasinan (, ; ; ), is a coastal Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region of Luzon. Its capital is Lingayen, Pangasinan, Lingayen while San Carlos, Pangasi ...

and secretary/minister of Agrarian Reform during the Marcos Sr. administration. He graduated from

De La Salle University De La Salle University (), also referred to as DLSU, De La Salle or La Salle, is a private, Catholic coeducational research university run by the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools with main campus in Taft Avenue, Malate, Man ...

with a degree in history and political science.

Local politics

His early political career began in the

Kabataang Barangay A Sangguniang Kabataan (abbreviated as SK; ) is a community council that represents the youth in a barangay in the Philippines. Established to provide young people with a platform for civic engagement and participation in local governance, ...

(KB) where he became the president of the provincial KB federation of

, chairman of the regional KB federation of

Ilocos Region The Ilocos Region (; ; ), designated as Region I, is an Region of the Philippines, administrative region of the Philippines. Located in the northwestern section of Luzon, it is bordered by the Cordillera Administrative Region to the east, the Ca ...

, and member of the KB National Council. From 1980 to 1985, he was a member of the

Pangasinan Provincial Board The Pangasinan Provincial Board is the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (provincial legislature) of the Philippine province of Pangasinan. The members are elected via plurality-at-large voting: the province is divided into six districts, each having two ...

House of Representatives of the Philippines

Estrella was elected to the

House of Representatives of the Philippines The House of Representatives (; '','' thus commonly referred to as ''Kamara'') is the lower house of Congress of the Philippines, Congress, the bicameral legislature of the Philippines, with the Senate of the Philippines as the upper house. The ...

in 1987 and 1992, representing Pangasinan's sixth district. In the 8th Congress, he ran under the

Kilusang Bagong Lipunan The New Society Movement (, KBL), formerly named the New Society Movement of United Nationalists, Liberals, et cetera (, KBLNNL), is a Right-wing politics, right-wing political party in the Philippines. It was first formed in 1978 as an umbrel ...

, was one of the youngest elected representative at age 26 and was a member of the opposition. It was reported that his first campaign was funded by

Ferdinand Marcos Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. (September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino lawyer, politician, dictator, and Kleptocracy, kleptocrat who served as the tenth president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled the c ...

. In the 9th Congress, he was the vice-chairman of the House Committees on Accounts and

Tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as ...

. In 1994, he was offered by then-President

Fidel V. Ramos Fidel Valdez Ramos (; March 18, 1928 – July 31, 2022), popularly known as FVR, was a Filipino general and politician who served as the 12th president of the Philippines from 1992 to 1998. He was the only career military officer to reached ...

to head the

Philippine Sports Commission The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC; ) is an agency of the Philippine government that tackles matters concerning sports in the country. The sports agency is independent from the Philippine Olympic Committee, a privately-ran organization that e ...

in an attempt to block his reelection bid where he would run against Ranjit Shahani, Ramos' nephew and son of then-Senator

Leticia Ramos-Shahani Leticia Valdez Ramos-Shahani (September 30, 1929 – March 20, 2017) was a Filipino senator, diplomat, and writer. She was the younger sister of Fidel V. Ramos, the 12th president of the Philippines. Early life She was born on September ...

. The sports community, however, did not approve of the plan prompting Ramos to appoint

Philip Juico Philip Ella Juico is a Filipino sports official. He is the chairman emeritus of the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (PATAFA), the NSA for athletics in the Philippines. He was president of PATAFA from 2015 to 2022. Juico served ...

instead. Estrella ultimately withdrew from the race and was later appointed to the

Manila Economic and Cultural Office The Manila Economic and Cultural OfficeIn .In . Also known as the Philippine Representative Office in Taiwan; . simple known as MECO is the List of diplomatic missions of the Philippines, representative office of the Philippines in Taiwan, functi ...

where he served as one of its directors from 1995 to 1998. During the Estrada presidency, he became the administrator of the

National Electrification Administration The National Electrification Administration (NEA; ) is a government-owned and controlled corporation (GOCC) attached to the Department of Energy of the Philippines tasked in the full implementation of the rural electrification program (REP) a ...

. Estrella returned to the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

as the representative of the 6th district of Pangasinan in 2001 and served until 2010. During the

12th Congress 12th Congress may refer to: * 12th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (1982) * 12th Congress of the Philippines (2001–2004) * 12th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) (1923) * 12th National Congress of the Chines ...

, he was the chairman of the House Special Committee on the North Luzon Growth Quadrangle. In 2013, he became the party-list representative of

Abono Abono () is a political organization in the Philippines which had party-list representation in the House of Representatives of the Philippines. In the May 14, 2007 election, the party won one seat in the nationwide party-list vote. As a party-l ...

succeeding his brother

Robert Raymond Estrella Robert Raymund 'Eskimo' Masonsong Estrella is a politician and is currently the representative of Abono Partylist, a Filipino political party. Early life Estrella was born in the province of Pangasinan in the Philippines, he was born to politic ...

. He was among the 23 representatives linked to the

pork barrel scam The Priority Development Assistance Fund scam, also called the PDAF scam or the pork barrel scam, was a political scandal involving the alleged misuse by several members of the Congress of the Philippines of their Priority Development Assistanc ...

by a ''

Philippine Daily Inquirer The ''Philippine Daily Inquirer'' (''PDI''), or simply the ''Inquirer'', is an English-language newspaper in the Philippines. Founded in 1985, it is often regarded as the Philippines' newspaper of record. The newspaper is the most awarded broad ...

'' exposé in 2013. In August 2015, the National Bureau of Investigation charged Estrella and his brother with malversation, direct bribery, and other graft and corrupt practices before the

Ombudsman An ombudsman ( , also ) is a government employee who investigates and tries to resolve complaints, usually through recommendations (binding or not) or mediation. They are usually appointed by the government or by parliament (often with a sign ...

. That same year, he was served numerous notices of disallowances from the

Commission on Audit The Commission on Audit (COA; ) is an independent constitutional commission established by the Constitution of the Philippines. It has the primary function to examine, audit and settle all accounts and expenditures of the funds and properties ...

with regards to the use of his

Priority Development Assistance Fund The Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) was a discretionary fund in the Philippines available to members of Congress. Originally established as the Countrywide Development Fund (CDF) in 1990, it was designed to allow legislators to fund sm ...

to implement livelihood projects worth

₱ The Philippine peso sign (₱) is the currency symbol used for the Philippine peso, the official currency of the Philippines. The symbol resembles a Latin script, Latin letter P with two horizontal strokes. It differs from the currency symbol u ...

64million in Pangasinan coursed through questionable

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

s. He was later excluded from liability by the commission in 2018 due to a court decision which declared his signatures in the documents facilitating the transactions to be forgeries. On July 10, 2020, he was one of the 70 representatives who voted to reject the franchise renewal of ABS-CBN.

Secretary of agrarian reform (since 2022)

On June 8, 2022, he accepted the offer of President

Bongbong Marcos Ferdinand "Bongbong" Romualdez Marcos Jr. (, , ; born September 13, 1957), commonly referred to by the initials BBM or PBBM, is a Filipino politician who has served as the 17th president of the Philippines since 2022. He is the second child ...

to head the

Department of Agrarian Reform The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR; ) is an executive department of the Philippine government responsible for the redistribution of agrarian land in the Philippines. The secretary of agrarian reform is the head of DAR. List of the Secreta ...

as its secretary after his grandfather, Conrado Estrella Sr. who also became secretary from 1971 to 1986.

Personal life

Estrella married Sandra S. Romero on June 7, 1985, at the age of 24. The couple produced four children: Maria Sergia Susana, Conrado Andrew IV, Albert and Gilbert.Department of Agrarian Reform

Retrieved July 12, 2022.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Estrella, Conrado III 1960 births Deputy speakers of the House of Representatives of the Philippines Politicians from Pangasinan Members of the House of Representatives of the Philippines from Pangasinan Party-list members of the House of Representatives of the Philippines Living people Secretaries of agrarian reform of the Philippines Bongbong Marcos administration cabinet members Estrada administration personnel Nationalist People's Coalition politicians Kilusang Bagong Lipunan politicians