Jinggoy asks court to revert to original sked to speed up bail hearing

DETAINED Senator Jinggoy Estrada has asked the Sandiganbayan to go  back to its original schedule of conducting his bail hearings on plunder case over the pork barrel scam.

In a motion, Estrada said the change in schedule to thrice a week actually slowed down the proceedings of the bail hearing.

Estrada’s bail hearings were changed from every Monday the whole morning, to Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays with an allotted period of 25 to 40 minutes per hearing.

Estrada said he had to share his hearings with former Apec Rep. Edgar Valdez, another accused in the pork barrel scam.

Estrada said in the past two weeks, he had only been given 30 minutes per hearing day or a total of 90 minutes per week in the last two weeks.

“(This is a) loss of 60 minutes per week from the previous Monday hearings. This change of hearing time per week has slowed down the hearing on the bail petition of the accused instead of it  being accelerated,” Estrada said in his motion.

He added his lawyers were also affected by the thrice a week hearing on his plunder case.

“Having three hearing days for this case at a limited allotted time also affect the calendar of the undersigned lawyers as they are now obligated and constrained to allot three days in a week for this case with the knowledge and expectancy that the time allotment will be lesser than the Mondays exclusive hearing days before the change of schedule,” Estrada said.

The detained senator acknowledged that it was his request for additional hearing dates, but the setting backfired and “has reduced the actual hearing time for this case.”

In a statement, Estrada said he would appreciate if the court goes back to its original schedule of one day hearing on his pork barrel scam case.

“It is a welcome development for me [be]cause this bail hearing has been dragging on for one year and one month. I appreciate the decision of the court… sana huwag nang hatiin ang oras namin, sana exclusively for the bail hearing of my case na lang in order to expedite the bail proceedings,” Estrada said.

Estrada faces plunder and graft charges before the Sandiganbayan for his alleged involvement in the scheme of pilfering lawmakers’ Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) to ghost projects for kickbacks. He is detained with Senator Ramon Revilla Jr. for the same charges. Meanwhile, co-accused Senator Juan Ponce Enrile is under hospital detention.