Sen. Estrada fails to get immediate legal relief from SC

MANILA, Philippines—Senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada failed to get immediate relief from the Supreme Court in his bid to stop the Office of the Ombudsman from pursuing the plunder case filed against him in connection with the kickbacks he allegedly received from the pork barrel fund scam.

In a resolution, the high court instead ordered the Office of the Ombudsman, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and lawyer Levito Baligod who acted as complainant before the Office of the Ombudsman, to comment on Estrada’s petition within a non-extendible period of 10 days from receipt of the order.

The high court’s resolution, however, did not indicate if Estrada’s request for a restraining order would be taken after the comments have been submitted.

Sen. Jinggoy Estrada  INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

The Ombudsman last April 1 approved the filing of plunder and graft charges against Estrada and Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr, as well as alleged pork scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles before the Sandiganbayan.

Revilla allegedly received kickbacks amounting to P224.5 million, Juan Ponce Enrile with P172.8 million kickbacks and Estrada with P183.79 million.

But Estrada, in his petition before the Supreme Court, said the Ombudsman’s decision “grievously ignored, trampled upon and violated” his constitutional rights to due process when it first denied his request and then later on filed charges against him using those affidavits which he added were “not disclosed to him.”

Estrada said the finding of probable cause against him was “premised on evidence not disclosed to him.”

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