Senator Jinggoy Estrada is currently detained in QC jail.
Senator Jinggoy Estrada is detained in a Quezon City jail after being charged with a non-bailable plunder case linked to alleged DPWH flood control project kickbacks.
On Thursday afternoon, the Office of the Ombudsman filed plunder and graft charges against Jinggoy Estrada. In his third plunder case, Estrada decided to surrender and instructed the Senate secretary to put his salary on hold.
He stands his ground for the independence of the Senate, saying, “I will not yield to threats, I will not be intimidated, I will not be pressured into surrendering my independence of judgement.”
Currently, after his surrender to the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG), he is being held in detention in Quezon City Jail Male Dormitory.
As of the latest, the Sandiganbayan Second Division rescheduled the arraignment of Estrada and ex-DPWH Sec. Manuel Bonoan on their graft charge over the alleged flood control kickback scheme on Thursday. This followed a request from Bonoan’s counsel to postpone the arraignment due to his high blood pressure condition.
As for Estrada, he arrived on Tuesday at the Sandiganbayan for the arraignment of his graft case, wearing a yellow Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) shirt. Estrada arrived at the Sandiganbayan Second Division in handcuffs alongside three co-accused, all former engineers of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH)-Metro Manila.
Meanwhile, Malacañang on Tuesday dismissed Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano’s assertion that Estrada’s arrest for plunder within Senate premises was an example of executive overreach, maintaining that the operation did not undermine the Senate’s independence as a coequal branch of government.
“So how can there be cooperation and coordination among the branches of government if some people act superior, refuse to follow the law, and behave as if they are above everyone else? That cannot be the case. Everyone must be treated equally,” Palace press officer Claire Castro said after denying that President Bongbong Marcos interfered.
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