MANILA, Philippines—State prosecutors called Senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada “self-important” for asking the court to reverse its decision denying his request to conduct Senate duties while in jail.
In their comment opposition to Revilla’s motion for reconsideration, the panel said the court should deny Estrada’s motion for lack of merit.
The prosecutors even called Estrada as filled with “self-importance” for asking the court’s nod for him to conduct committee hearings while in jail so he would not shirk from his duties as senator.
“Estrada, so immense with his perceived self-importance, contented himself by positing a purported nobility of intention that he ‘has no intention of shirking from his duty’ and should be allowed ‘to conduct hearings and conferences even while in detention to expedite the passage of much needed laws,'” the comment opposition read.
The prosecutors said the 24-member Senate can function as a whole despite the absence of the senator, who is also suspended from his duties as he faces trial for plunder over the pork barrel scam.
The law also prohibits detainees from having the privilege to meet with scores of people while in detention, the prosecutors said.
Senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada. POOL PHOTO
Allowing him to attend hearings will subject Estrada to meeting with several persons, they added.
“Indeed, to give him leave to do so would amount to giving him, though undeserved, favor over and above ordinary detainees,” the panel said.
Estrada should bear in mind that “ours is a government of law and not of men,” the prosecutors added.
Estrada filed his appeal as the anti-graft court’s fifth division denied his request to perform his duties as Senator while in detention.
Estrada is held at the Custodial Center of the Philippine National Police after the Sandiganbayan ordered his arrest on plunder and graft charges in connection with the P10-billion pork barrel scam.
In his motion for leave, Estrada said a senator holding office while in detention is not new. He cited the case of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, who was allowed to conduct hearings in 2007 and 2010 while he was detained for treason for the failed Oakwood mutiny.
Estrada said Trillanes was even allowed to have committee hearings at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center, where Estrada is now detained for plunder.
But the prosecutors in their comment opposition said this had no legal basis.
Trillanes had requested once for leave to attend committee hearings but this was denied by the court, the panel added.
In the resolution denying Estrada’s motion, the Sandiganbayan said Estrada could not cite his position in the Senate as a defense that he could still function as senator while in detention.
The court said citing his position as senator would mean he is making himself different from the same class of prisoners whose freedom are limited as they face charges.
“We, therefore find that election to the position of senator is not a reasonable classification in criminal law enforcement. The functions and duties of the office are not substantial distinctions, which lift him from the class of prisoners interrupted in their freedom and restricted in liberty of movement. Lawful arrest and confinement are germane to the purposes of the law and apply to all those belonging to the same class,” the decision read.
The court also reminded Estrada that he is suspended as senator for 90 days as he stands trial for plunder and other criminal charges. The Senate has enforced the Sandiganbayan’s order suspending him on September 2.
The court ordered Estrada’s suspension to prevent the senator from using his position to influence witnesses or tamper with evidence.
“The sole objective of which (suspension) is to prevent the accused from hampering the normal course of the investigation with his influence and authority over possible witnesses or to keep him off the records and other evidence….” the decision read.
Estrada was charged with plunder and graft over the pork barrel scam, of which billions of state funds were allegedly funneled to ghost projects for kickbacks under the scheme of alleged mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles. Napoles, and Estrada’s co-accused Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Ramon Revilla Jr. are also detained over the scam.
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