Former Sen. Jinggoy Estrada. FILE PHOTO
MANILA — Detained “pork barrel” scam respondent and former senator Jinggoy Estrada has obtained the anti-graft court’s go-signal to leave jail to visit the hospital for a check-up on Thursday (May 18).
In a two-page minute resolution on proceedings conducted on May 16, the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division, chaired by Associate Justice Rafael Lagos, granted Estrada’s May 11 “very urgent” motion to undergo hospital examination for “extreme pain” on his right shoulder.
The 54-year-old actor-politician has been detained at the detention center in the national police headquarters in Camp Crame since 2014, after being charged at the Sandiganbayan for allegedly receiving P183.8 million in kickbacks from endorsing bogus foundations to implement projects with his “pork barrel” or Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).
In November 2014, Estrada was diagnosed with “calcific tendinitis-adhesive capsulitis,” a tissue inflammation known as “frozen shoulder.”
The Sandiganbayan Fifth Division, however, subjected the hospital visit Thursday afternoon to eight conditions, chief of which is that Estrada undergo the MRI and X-Ray procedures only at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center, not in any other hospital; and only from 12 noon until 6 p.m. on May 18, “or until the examinations/procedures are terminated.”
The court directed the Philippine National Police (PNP) to provide adequate personal escorts and security measures to accompany Estrada and regulate his movements during this period; including to control and supervise the use of any means of communication and electronic gadgets by Estrada and those who would accompany him.
The court directed Estrada to shoulder all expenses to be incurred by the PNP for the personal escorts and security measures until his return to the detention center; and to furnish the court, through his counsel, with a copy of the result of the hospital examination.
The court also prohibited media and other news interviews during Estrada’s hospital visit on Thursday. SFM