Jinggoy Estrada: Robbery may be inside job, I fear for my family’s safety

Detained Sen. Jinggoy Estrada on Monday said the break-in at his house in an upscale subdivision in Quezon City may have been an inside job, noting that the arrested burglar looked familiar to him.

In an interview after his bail hearing in the Sandiganbayan, Estrada expressed his concern for his family’s safety after the robbery incident which took place while his wife, Precy, and their children were at the 85th birthday celebration of his mother, former Sen. Loi Estrada, in Parañaque City last Friday night.

“I can’t express what I felt when I first learned of the incident from my eldest daughter. I was really helpless,” Estrada told reporters.

The senator, who is being held at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame for his alleged involvement in the P10-billion pork barrel scam, said he immediately sought help from the police to ensure the safety of his family.

“I was really shouting and asked for help because I’m not there [for my family]. They were really helpless and I was also helpless,” he said.

He said that footage taken by closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras showed the arrested suspect, Eric Dalagan, going inside the room of his youngest daughter and staying there for at least 40 minutes.

He said Dalagan was also seen ransacking other parts of their house on Cameron Road in Corinthian Hills, an exclusive gated community in Barangay (village) gong Norte, before going into the room of the senator’s youngest daughter.

Dalagan, Estrada said, appeared to be familiar with the layout of their residence as he stayed there for at least four hours before Precy and their children arrived around 3 a.m. Saturday.

The suspect spent at least an hour inside the mini-kitchen near the master bedroom where he ate apples and drank cranberry juice, Estrada added.

“He really [looked] relaxed inside our house knowing that nobody was around,” Estrada said.

The senator said it was possible that the suspect had previously worked for the family as a painter or an electrician when the house was being built.

“I’m sure the suspect had a cohort. If you ask me if it’s an inside job or if somebody had told him about our rooms, I believe that it is,” he said.

“But it’s up to the police to investigate it. I have asked my wife to pursue charges,” the senator added.