SC junks Jinggoy’s bid to stop Sandigan from admitting Luy’s testimony

MANILA, Philippines—The Supreme Court denied the bid of Sen. Jinggoy Estrada to stop the Sandiganbayan from admitting as evidence the disbursement report of the JLN Corp. and the testimony of whistle-blower Benhur Luy.

“The Court denied the petitioner’s request for temporary restraining order,” high court’s Information Chief Theodore Te said on Tuesday at a press conference.

But the high court ordered the Sandiganbayan to comment on Estrada’s petition within 10 days from notice.

During the hearing of Estrada’s application for bail, Luy testified that he had encoded all purported cash and check disbursement reports of the alleged transactions between Janet Lim Napoles and several lawmakers. He then placed it in the hard drive which he turned over to the National Bureau of Investigation Cybercrime Unit.

On the other hand, the disbursement report from the JLN Corp. was used by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) in its investigation.

The AMLC investigation of bank documents revealed that Estrada, by himself or through his former secretary Pauline Labayen, Carl Dominic Labayen and Juan Tan Ng, received kickbacks amounting to P70.7 million within 30 days from the dates mentioned by Luy in his ledger, known as the daily JLN Corp. cash/check disbursement reports.

Based on the report Estrada, by himself or either through the Labayens and Ng, received commissions or rebates from his PDAF in an amount aggregating to P70,748,750. The same record also showed other transfers, directly from JLN/JLN Corp., to Juan T. Ng and Francis Yenko totaling to P86,875,000 making the senators’ alleged kickback amount to P157,623,750.

Estrada in his petition said the antigraft court committed grave abuse of discretion in denying his bid to not admit as evidence the JLN disbursement report and Luy’s testimony.

He added that his right against unreasonable searches and seizure were also violated.

“Senator Estrada invokes the commitment of the Constitution against unlimited arbitrary State power, as well as against any act in violation of the Bill of Rights. And so, Senator Estrada comes before this Honorable Supreme Court seeking its protection, this time from the actions of the Honorable Sandiganbayan in violation of his Constitutional right against unreasonable searches and seizure, and made without or in excess of jurisdiction or with grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction,” the petition stated.

He added that the disbursement report, which was part of the electronic data of Luy, cannot be admitted as evidence.

“As an employee of JLN Corp., Mr. Luy does not own purported Disbursement Reports even if he supposedly encoded such electronic files, as intellectual property produced by an employee contemplated by such contract of employment belongs to the employer and not to the employee,” Estrada said adding that Luy was not authorized to access the file since it was not his property.

“The unauthorized access, collection and disclosure of the electronic files constituting the disbursement reports constitute a violation of Republic Act No. 10175 [Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012],” Estrada said.

Under Section 12 of RA 101-75, “data to be collected or seized or disclosed will require a court warrant.”

However, Estrada said the data collected from Luy was not done by virtue of a search warrant, which makes it inadmissible in any proceedings under Section 18 of the same law.

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