MANILA -- Former President Joseph Estrada was briefly hospitalized Sunday because of a bleeding nose, but was declared well by doctors after treatment, his son said.
Estrada, 73, was discharged from a Manila hospital after doctors treated a scratch in his nasal passageway and performed tests to make sure it was nothing serious, his son Senator Jinggoy Estrada said.
The former leader and action movie star last week suffered from nose bleeding, which recurred Sunday, prompting his wife and son to take him to a hospital, the senator said.
The former leader has undergone surgery in the past to repair torn ligaments in both knees and treat a cataract in his left eye but has had no serious health ailments in recent years, his spokeswoman Margaux Salcedo said.
After finishing second to President Benigno Aquino III in May 10 presidential elections, Estrada said he planned to retire from politics and his first love, the movies, but would continue to help his legions of poor followers, who voted him into power in 1998.
Estrada stepped down amid massive anti-corruption protests in 2001 after serving only half of his six-year term. He was convicted of economic plunder in 2007 but was immediately pardoned by his successor and political nemesis, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. (AP/Sunnex)