SC nixes Jinggoy’s bid to dismiss

Former Sen. Jinggoy Estrada. FILE PHOTO

BAGUIO CITY—Sticking to its earlier ruling, the Supreme Court in an en banc session here on Tuesday dismissed with finality the motion for reconsideration filed by former Sen. Jinggoy Estrada of the Sandiganbayan decisions regarding his graft and plunder cases.

Estrada, son of former President and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, had failed to convince the antigraft court to junk the graft charges he faced when he argued that these cases were redundant and formed part of the plunder charges filed against him in connection with the so-called pork barrel scam uncovered in 2013.

Estrada, who has been held in Camp Crame since June 2014, is facing trial for plunder, a nonbailable offense, and 11 counts of graft for allegedly siphoning off his pork barrel, officially known as Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), to bogus foundations owned by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles.

Estrada was accused of conspiring with Napoles in funneling his PDAF into alleged ghost projects in exchange for P183 million in kickbacks.

The Sandiganbayan rejected Estrada’s petition, saying that the plunder charge involved transactions from 2004 to 2012. The graft cases, however, involved transactions from 2008 to 2010.

Estrada elevated the matter to the Supreme Court, accusing the Sandiganbayan of grave abuse of discretion.

In a Jan. 24 resolution, however, the high court dismissed Estrada’s petition.

On Tuesday, the court again ruled that the Sandiganbayan had not committed any “grave abuse of discretion” when it decided against Estrada’s bid to suppress disbursement reports from the trail as well as the testimony of principal whistle-blower Benhur Luy, who exposed the pork barrel scam.

It also upheld the decision of the Sandiganbayan to let the Office of the Ombudsman use Luy’s disbursement reports as evidence.