Jinggoy Estrada: Why would I lie to Sandiganbayan?

Plunder accused Jinggoy Estrada, a former senator, on Tuesday said he would not risk his temporary freedom by lying to the antigraft court Sandiganbayan about an invitation for him to speak in the United States about good governance and the fight against corruption.

“I was allowed to bail, to have temporary freedom,” Estrada said.

Not stupid

“Do you think I will lie to the court? I know that anytime my bail can be revoked,” he said.

Estrada was reacting to a Sandiganbayan order for him to reply to a bid by government prosecutors to have his travel authority to the United States revoked because he lied about being invited by the group US Pinoys for Good Governance.

Filipino American businesswoman Loida Nicholas-Lewis, national president of the organization, denied her group had invited Estrada.

It was William Dechavez, the group’s leader in Michigan, who invited him, said Estrada.

Estrada said if he knew that it was Lewis who headed the group, he would not have accepted the invitation.

Estrada said he was not a flight risk as he had already been allowed twice in the past to travel outside the Philippines.