Sen. Estrada: Plunder case a political ploy to ruin opposition

Sen. Jinggoy Estrada. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada on Thursday submitted his counter-affidavit to the Office of the Ombudsman describing the plunder case filed against him in connection with his involvement in the so-called pork barrel scam as politically motivated.

“I believe that these are nothing more than a high-level political ploy to undermine the opposition of which I am part in light of the coming 2016 national elections,” Estrada said.

He said that the complaint filed against him is not supported by hard facts and evidence, but “merely by bare allegations of secondhand information, hearsay, malicious suspicion and speculations.”

Estrada pointed out that government witnesses admitted that it has no personal knowledge of the supposed transaction between him and Janet Lim-Napoles.

As a senator, he said they have no hand in the implementation of the projects under the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), and that his participation is limited to identifying a project from a menu of projects for funding as provided by law.

He further pointed out that his endorsements of certain non-government organizations from a limited list of duly and previously accredited NGOs were “recommendatory at best” with the choice of NGO still left to the implementing agency.

“These endorsements merely reflected the choice of intended project beneficiaries and was based on the willingness of the NGO to undertake the chosen project, and subject to compliance with existing accounting and auditing rules and regulations,” he said.

He said that since the implementing agency which is tasked to look into the feasibility of the project proposals and qualifications of NGOs did not inform him of any conflict, it means everything was in order.

“Had there been any objections or problem with respect to the endorsements made for the NGOs, I should have received word from the implementing agency or the COA which conducts post-audits of the projects. I received none,” he said.

In November last year, the Office of the Ombudsman already issued separate orders to Senators Juan Ponce-Enrile, Estrada and Ramon “Bong” Revilla to answer the complaints against them.

The Ombudsman Panel issued separate Orders dated November 19, 2013 after having evaluated the case and found “enough basis to proceed with the preliminary investigation” of the three (3) separate complaints filed by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) against Senators Revilla, Estrada, Enrile and their respective sets of respondents-public employees and non-governmental organization (NGO) officers.

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