MANILA, Philippines – State prosecutors have asked the Sandiganbayan to scold detained Senator Jinggoy Estrada for filing motions that they claimed were only meant to delay the proceedings in his plunder case over the pork barrel scam.
The Office of the State Prosecutors in their motion also asked the antigraft court to junk Estrada’s motion to exclude from the evidence the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) inquiry report on Estrada’s bank accounts believed to contain millions of kickbacks he received from accused mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles.
In their reply to Estrada’s motion, the panel said Estrada’s plea has no merit.
For one, Estrada could not invoke violation of the confidentiality clause in AMLC rules, because the provision only applies to cases of civil forfeiture, asset preservation and freezing of monetary instruments.
The detained senator had also waived his confidentiality and authorized the Ombudsman to inquire into his accounts as indicated in his declared Statements of Assets and Liabilities Networth (SALN), the panel said.
“Estrada, therefore, cannot invoke his privacy as against the Ombudsman, who he expressly authorized to obtain information regarding his assets and properties from government agencies including the AMLC, needless to state,” the panel said.
The panel also said the court should admonish Estrada for filing “frivolous” motions only meant to derail the speedy disposition of his plunder case.
“(This is) just the latest in Estrada’s endless barrage of frivolous motions designed to delay the instant proceedings and prevent incriminatory evidence from being introduced against him,” the team said.
The panel urged Estrada to stop filing such motions and instead answer the allegations against him.
“Instead of raising erroneous arguments and baseless grounds, Estrada should simply come clean and explain himself to the people. His dilatory maneuvers – being orchestrated by his lawyers since day one – are beginning to speak volumes of his purported ‘innocence,’” the team said.
The 90-page AMLC report, which was blocked by Estrada’s lawyers in the previous hearing, purportedly shows how Estrada hid his wealth in his SALN and how he allegedly received kickbacks through conduits from accused pork barrel scam mastermind Napoles.
Estrada is detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center with fellow lawmaker Ramon Revilla Jr. for plunder. Meanwhile, Senator Juan Ponce Enrile is under hospital arrest.
Napoles is locked up at the Camp Bagong Diwa female dormitory also for plunder.