(Eagle News) — The lawyers of Jinggoy Estrada on Saturday posted P1.33 million in bail for the former senator, paving the way for his eventual temporary release.
This was after the Sandiganbayan fifth division granted Estrada’s second petition for bail after years in detention in Camp Crame over his alleged malversation of Priority Development Assistance Funds to fake nongovernment organizations owned by Janet Lim Napoles.
Voting 3-2, the fifth division pegged bail at P1 million for plunder, and P330,000 each for 11 counts of graft.
Voting in favor of the former senator were Associate Justices Maria Theresa V. Mendoza-Arcega, Reynaldo Cruz, and Lorifel Pahimna.
Associate Justices Rafael Lagos and Zaldy Trespeses dissented.
In granting the petition for bail Estrada filed in 2016, the anti-graft court noted that Estrada was a prominent personality, which means the probability of “flight” was “not that much.”
It noted that the fact that the former senator surrendered voluntarily when an arrest warrant was issued against him in 2014, and the fact that he remained in detention “for almost three years negate the intention or intention to evade the legal process.”
The division, however, denied the former senator’s petition for the cases against him to be dismissed.
Of the three senators charged for their alleged roles in the pork barrel scam, only former Senator Bong Revilla remains detained.
Former Senator Juan Ponce Enrile was the first to post bail in 2015.