Jinggoy Estrada withdraws bail petition in P573-M plunder case

Senator Jinggoy Estrada on Thursday withdrew his petition seeking bail to secure temporary liberty pending a P573-million plunder charge against him in connection with his alleged involvement in the flood control mess.

Estrada’s counsels withdrew the petition after Sandiganbayan Fifth Division Justices Gener Gito and Maryann Corpus-Mañalac warned that pursuing the petition to fix bail will jeopardize the senator's existing petition to quash the plunder case against him.

Plunder is a non-bailable offense. As such, an accused would need to file a bail petition and secure the court’s approval for such petition before securing temporary liberty.

Estrada’s counsels, however, initially argued that Estrada is entitled to bail since there is no strong evidence of guilt against the senator, and that they are asking the court to hold a hearing to determine if there is strong evidence of guilt against the lawmaker.

Gito, however, cautioned that such position would have a huge effect on the pending case.

“If you insist on your motion to fix bail, your client [should be] first arraigned, then we proceed to pre-trial before hearing petition for bail,” Gito said.

Arraignment is the court process where the accused enters a plea on the charges leveled against him or her.

Gito posed the reminder since Estrada also has a pending petition to reset his arraignment due to his pending motion to quash, among other motions that seek to dismiss the plunder case against him.

“If we are going to treat it as petition for bail, we will arraign the accused and we will go to pre-trial, [then] conduct [a bail] hearing to give the prosecution an opportunity to prove that the evidence of the accused is strong,” Gito pointed out.

“Whether it is to fix bail or post bail, the basis is the same. You want to question the prosecution’s evidence. When you file petition for bail, you know for a fact that the accused should be arraigned [first],” Corpus-Mañalac added.

Estrada’s counsels eventually gave in, saying that the motion of quash takes precedence over petition to fix bail.

"The motion to quash must be resolved first. We will abandon the motion to fix bail for the meantime,” Atty. Lawrence Arroyo said.

During the same hearing, Estrada’s counsels also informed the court that they are withdrawing their motion to transfer Estrada from New Quezon City bail to the Philippine National Police (PNP) Custodial Center.

The anti-graft court gave the prosecution 10 days to comment on the motion to quash filed by Estrada and former Public Works chief Manuel Bonoan, who is Estrada’s co-accused in the plunder and graft cases before the Fifth Division.

This resulted in the arraignment of Estrada and Bonoan for the plunder and graft cases, originally scheduled June 4, being reset to June 30 at 8:30 am.

Knee problem

Meanwhile, during an online hearing on his graft case with the Sandiganbayan Second Division, Estrada's counsel, Noel Ostrea, said the senator is suffering from osteoarthritis.

“He (Estrada) is suffering from osteoarthrities on both knees, which contributes to his physical difficulties in coming here,” Ostrea said.

Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Geraldine Econg, who chairs the Second Division, said Estrada’s motion to attend the hearings via video conferencing is in accordance with the Supreme Court guidelines for video conference, with the provision that this would mean that the accused waives his or her right to confront the witnesses in person.

“We find that the motion of Senator Estrada [to attend via videoconferencing] to be in accordance with promulgated rules,” Econg said.

In response, Estrada thanked the court for granting his request.

During the same hearing, Ostrea also questioned the graft charge filed against him.

“Where is the personal participation of Senator Estrada in this [kickback] scheme? We do not feel that the [criminal information] is credible,” Ostrea said.

In response, Ombudsman prosecutors maintained that their allegations that have been stated in the case are sufficient enough.— RSJ, GMA News