Jinggoy’s advice to Grace Poe on her DQ cases: ‘Dasal pa more’  

Pray harder.

This was the advice of detained Sen. Jinggoy Estrada to Sen. Grace Poe who is facing multiple disqualification cases that may bar her from running for president in the 2016 elections over citizenship and residency issues.

"Pareho lang kami [ng dapat gawin]. Dasal pa more. Pray pa more," Estrada told reporters in a chance interview Thursday at the Sandiganbayan following the conclusion of more than a year of hearings of his petition to post bail for a plunder case.

Estrada is facing plunder and graft charges before the Fifth Division in connection with his alleged involvement in the pork barrel scam.

"I think she can hurdle it, she has a battery of good lawyers. Siguro naman baka malampasan ni Sen. Grace yung kanyang kinalalagyan, yung kanyang sitwasyon ngayon," Estrada said.

Estrada said he and Poe remain to be good friends, thus he wishes the best for her.

"Kumare ko yun e, inaanak ko ung anak niya, ever since when FPJ (Fernando Poe Jr.) was still alive, magkaibigan na kami," Estrada said.

Poe is facing four disqualification cases before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) with the petitioners asking the poll body to nullify the certificate of candidacy (COC) that she filed for president in 2016 elections.

On Tuesday, the Comelec Second Division voted in favor of one of the disqualification cases, saying that Poe failled to meet the 10-year residency requirement mandated by the Constitution for a presidential candidate. 

Poe, however, said she will file a motion for reconsideration before the Comelec En Banc to reverse the division’s ruling.

Poe is also facing a separate disqualification case before the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) filed by defeated 2013 senatorial candidate Rizalito David.

In his petition, David is seeking to unseat Poe in the Senate on the ground that she is allegedly not a natural-born Filipino citizen.

The SET last month denied the petition and on Thursday, affirmed its earlier ruling.

David, however, had repeatedly said that he will elevate the matter before the SC should the SET denies his appeal.

Meanwhile, Estrada said their family has yet to decide on who among the top presidential aspirants to support and endorse in 2016 elections.

"Wala pa. Siyempre si Senator Grace, she's considered as a family friend. Si Vice President [Jejomar] Binay, the same thing is true, he is also considered as a family friend," Estrada said.

"Si Mayor [Rodrigo] Duterte medyo malapit din na kaibigan namin. Si Secretary Mar [Roxas] naman ganun din. I think he was the most trusted Cabinet member of President Estrada when he was still president," the younger Estrada added.

Christmas wish

Meanwhile, Estrada said he is hoping that the Sandiganbayan would rule on his petition for bail before Christmas.

"Palagi kong pinagdadasal ‘yan…Ako talagang nananalangin ako na sana makapag Pasko man lang ako sa labas ng kulungan, makasama ko ang aking pamilya, ang aking mga kababayan," Estrada said.

Estrada has been detained at the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame, Quezon City since June 2014.

Estrada said he is confident that his petition for bail would be granted by the court soon due to the supposed weak evidence of the prosecution.

"If you base on the performance of the prosecution and the defense this morning, it is very clear that the prosecution failed miserably to present any evidence that I received the P183 million [alleged kickbacks] even the aggregate amount of P50 million they failed to prove it," Estrada said.

Estrada is accused of amassing P183.793-million worth of kickbacks for allocating his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel to the fake non-government organizations (NGOs) allegedly owned by Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged brains behind the pork scam.

Under Republic Act 7080 or the Anti-Plunder Law, for a crime to be considered as plunder, a public official must have at least illegally amassed the threshold amount of P50 million.

Plunder is a non-bailable offense if proven that the evidence of guilt against the accused is strong.

The Fifth Division formally ended the hearing of Estrada’s bail petition on Thursday.

The court has given the prosecution and the defense ten days to submit their respective memorandum summarizing the testimony of the witnesses they presented and the gist of their documentary evidence, afterwhich, the senator’s bail petition is deemed submitted for resolution. — RSJ/JST, GMA News