State prosecutors oppose Jinggoy’s request to vote outside detention
Senator Jinggoy Estrada. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
State prosecutors opposed on Wednesday the request of detained Sen. Jinggoy Estrada to vote outside his detention cell and cast his ballot in San Juan City to vote for his daughter Janella, a candidate for vice mayor in the coming May 9 polls.
In its comment opposition, the Office of the Special Prosecutor urged the court to deny Estrada’s request for lack of merit.
The prosecution said Estrada’s request for detainee voting has no legal basis because of the temporary restraining order issued by the Supreme Court on the Commission on Elections (Comelec) resolution on detainee voting.
Estrada also failed to prove that there is no special polling center at the Philippine National Police (PNP) Custodial Center, where he is detained.
“Worse, there is no showing that it is logistically feasible for his custodian to escort him out of his detention,” the prosecution said.
Article continues after this advertisementIn his urgent motion filed before the anti-graft court Fifth Division, Estrada asked the court’s nod to allow him to vote from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on May 9 in his voting precinct at Xavier School in San Juan City under the security of the Philippine National Police.
Article continues after this advertisementREAD: Jinggoy asks court to allow him to vote in San Juan for daughter
Estrada said he would shoulder the expenses brought about by police security.
Estrada asked the court’s leave adding that he has a right to suffrage allowed for by the Supreme Court for detainees.
He said he wanted to vote outside his detention cell because detainee voting at the custodial center is only for national electoral positions. He would also like to cast his vote for the local elections in San Juan City.
Besides his daughter Janella, Guia Gomez, the mother of Jinggoy’s half-brother Sen JV. Ejercito with former Pres. Joseph Estrada, is gunning for her third and last term as San Juan mayor against her former ally Vice Mayor Francis Zamora.
Meanwhile, former councilor Jana Ejercito, Jinggoy’s cousin, is running for the San Juan congressional district against reelectionist San Juan representative and minority floor leader Ronaldo Zamora (Francis’ father).
READ: Guia Gomez, Janella Estrada, Jana Ejercito file COCs for San Juan posts
As to Estrada’s request to attend his daughter’s miting de avance at the Pinaglabanan Shrine in San Juan on May 7 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., the prosecution said the court had been consistent in denying Estrada’s request for furlough to restrict the senator’s movement outside his detention cell.
The prosecution said the court had denied Estrada’s furlough to celebrate Christmas and New Year with his family in 2014, to attend his birthday Mass in Feb. 2015, and even to attend the wake of the “Master Showman” German Moreno in Jan. 2016.
READ: Sandiganbayan denies Jinggoy Estrada’s furlough to attend Kuya Germs’ wake
“Surely, since the present motion is similar not only as to the objective but also to the effect of the motions for reprieve from jail… no plausible and cogent reason exists for this Honorable Court to depart from the ratio decidendi of its previous rulings,” the prosecution said.
The panel added that Estrada’s request for furlough should be denied due to security risks Estrada’s presence might pose during Janella’s miting de avance.
It added that granting Estrada’s request reeks of special privilege that would “create an impression to the public that accused Senator Estrada, being a high-ranking public official, is a favored detainee.”
The prosecution also asked the court to deny Estrada’s request to undergo MRI and X-ray at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center or the University of Santo Tomas Hospital to have his frozen shoulders checked.
The panel said Estrada failed to prove that the PNP Custodial Center was not equipped to conduct an MRI and X-ray on his frozen shoulders.
Estrada is detained for plunder and graft for allegedly receiving P183 million kickbacks from accused pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles. He is detained with co-accused Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr.
Both of them had been denied bail by the Sandigabayan. TVJ
