Jinggoy on De Lima’s arrest: Serves her right
Sen. Jinggoy Estrada. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/LYN RILLON
Detained former senator Jinggoy Estrada on Monday said it was only karma that Senator Leila De Lima now is under detention over drug-related charges.
In an interview with reporters after his scheduled graft and plunder pre-trial over the pork barrel scam, Estrada said De Lima was only suffering the same smear campaign she also instigated when she was justice secretary against him and his colleagues former senators Ramon Revilla Jr. and Juan Ponce Enrile over the scam.
“Siguro na-experience niya ‘yun na na-experience namin noong araw na talagang siya mismo ang nag-pupursige na halos siraan kami sa media siraan kami sa mata ng taong bayan,” Estrada said.
(Maybe she experienced what we experienced when it was she who is pursuing us and smearing our reputation before the media and the eyes of the country.)
“Bumalik siguro sa kanya,” Estrada added.
(Serves her right.)
Estrada and De Lima are both detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center as they face their non-bailable charges before the court.
Estrada also chided De Lima for claiming to be the first political prisoner under the Duterte administration.
READ: Duterte assures De Lima’s safety after arrest
“Paano siya magiging political prisoner? Hindi niya naiintindihan…. Hindi ba niya kami hinarass noong araw? Araw-araw for her own personal gain to enhance her political ambition,” Estrada said.
(How can she become a political prisoner? She does not understand… Didn’t she harass us before? She did that every day for her own personal gain to enhance her political ambition.)
The Sandiganbayan court reset Estrada’s graft and plunder pre-trial to April 17 for both parties to finish the pre-trial order.
For her part, accused pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles claimed De Lima extorted money from her.
In an interview with reporters after the pre-trial, Estrada’s co-accused Napoles said her serious illegal detention case, which the Solicitor General wanted dismissed, had earlier been junked by the Department of Justice (DOJ).
READ: SolGen Calida moves to acquit Napoles in illegal detention of Luy
Napoles claimed De Lima extorted money from her and revived the case.
“Wala naman po talagang illegal detention na nangyari. Ito po ay extortion lamang. Dinismiss na po ang kaso na ito sa DOJ noon pa,” Napoles said.
(There was no illegal detention that happened. This is extortion. The DOJ dismissed the case before.)
Asked who extorted money from her, Napoles said: “Isa si Secretary Leila De Lima (One of them is Secretary Leila De Lima).”
Napoles is serving life sentence at the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong after she was convicted for illegally detaining Benhur Luy, her finance officer who blew the whistle on the pork barrel scam.
Solicitor General Jose Calida earlier said there is no evidence that Napoles detained Luy at the retreat house to prevent him from exposing the scam.
“Injustice was done to Janet Lim Napoles,” said the top government lawyer, whose office filed a manifestation in lieu of rejoinder to the appellate court recommending the acquittal of Napoles.
READ: SolGen Calida: Injustice done to Napoles
It was under De Lima’s stint as justice secretary that the DOJ and the National Bureau of Investigation filed the plunder and graft complaints against three senators for allegedly earning millions of kickbacks from their Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF), which was spent on ghost projects for commissions.
Now a senator, De Lima was arrested and detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center on charges that she raised campaign funds from the Bilibid drug trade when she was justice secretary.
The case against her was investigated by Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II.
De Lima is a critic of President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war, going all the way back when she was human rights chief who investigated the vigilante killings in Davao City when Duterte was mayor.
READ: Benhur Luy: ‘Why is the gov’t turning against us?’
Estrada faces a plunder trial for allegedly receiving P183 million kickbacks from his PDAF, which was allegedly spent in ghost projects for kickbacks through the bogus foundations of accused mastermind Napoles.
He was denied bail, and remains in police custody with co-accused Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr. at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center.
Another accused, the elderly Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile was allowed by the Supreme Court to post bail due to humanitarian considerations.
Estrada was also accused of 11 counts of graft for violating Section 3(e) of the anti-graft law for allegedly causing injury to government and giving undue preference to Napoles’ bogus foundations to implement his ghost pork barrel projects. JE
READ: Sandigan denies Jinggoy bail plea
