Sen. Jinggoy Estrada. (File photo by LYN RILLON / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Sen. Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, recently released from detention after posting bail, has asked the Sandiganbayan to allow him to go on his first trip abroad in three years to accompany his father, Manila Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada, who is going to Singapore for medical treatment.
In a three-page motion, the younger Estrada sought the Fifth Division’s permission to leave the country from Nov. 11 to 20, as his father is set to undergo a procedure for the severe lower back pain.
He said his father had set an appointment with Dr. Premkumar Pillay of the Singapore Brain-Spine Nerves Center at Mount Elizabeth Hospital for “examinations and possible surgery” from Nov. 12 to 19.
He described Pillay as “known to be the best and award winning neurosurgeon in the areas of less invasive brain and spine treatment and surgery.”
The extra days on Nov. 11 and 20 were meant for advance preparations and extended recuperation period for Mayor Estrada, respectively.
Attached to the motion was an Oct. 26 letter by Dr. Regina Bagsic of the Cardinal Santos Medcial Center, which stated that Mayor Estrada complained of “severe low back pain” in the first week of September and had to undergo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computerized tomography (CT) scans.
While the mayor went through an initial trial of analgesics and physical therapy as well as intraspinal steroid injections, these measures proved to be of “limited success.”
Bagsic said Mayor Estrada would want to explore therapeutic measures such as disc therapy using laser methods which were “currently not available in the country.”
Jinggoy spent three years detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center on pork barrel charges filed against him, along with former Sens. Juan Ponce Enrile and Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., in June 2014.
In January 2016, the Fifth Division found the prosecution evidence strong enough to keep denying the former senantor the right to temporary liberty, and it denied an appeal that May.
But, the Supreme Court’s July 2016 precedent-setting ruling that acquitted former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of plunder encouraged him to try seeking bail again.
On Sept. 15, the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division voted 3-2 to allow him to post bail on the grounds that prosecutors failed to pinpoint a “main plunderer” in his P183.8-million case, a requirement only set by the SC in the Arroyo ruling. /atm