Former Sen. Jose Jinggoy Estrada–INQUIRER PHOTO/LYN RILLON
It was just proper for former Sen. Jinggoy Estrada to face trial in the Sandiganbayan over the allegedly irregular use of P183 million in his pork barrel allocations, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday.
Voting 6-4 with four justices inhibiting themselves, the high tribunal supported the finding of the Office of the Ombudsman that there was enough evidence to indict Estrada for plunder and 11 counts of graft.
The magistrates issued the decision a few weeks after a nationwide survey showed that Estrada was still among the voters’ top choices for senator in the 2019 midterm elections despite his alleged involvement in the P10-billion pork barrel racket.
The former senator, son of former President and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, has been visiting the provinces since he was allowed to post bail by the antigraft court’s Fifth Division despite being indicted for the nonbailable offense of plunder.
Temporary freedom
Theodore Te, the high court’s spokesperson, said the ruling did not invalidate the Sandiganbayan’s decision to grant Estrada his temporary freedom in September last year.
“That’s a different issue. This (decision) refers only to finding a probable cause to file the case,” Te said in a news conference.
“If the probable cause is sustained, it means that the charge remains and the (criminal) information remains,” he added.
P1.33-M bail
In allowing him to post P1.33-million bail, the Sandiganbayan reversed its previous resolution which found that Ombudsman prosecutors were able to present “strong evidence of guilt” that Estrada received kickbacks coursed through the bogus foundations of suspected pork barrel scam brains Janet Lim-Napoles.
Estrada, who was locked up in Camp Crame after he surrendered to authorities in June 2013, is one of the lawmakers charged for supposedly conspiring with Napoles in embezzling their Priority Development Assistance Fund, the official name of the pork barrel fund of legislators.