Look who’s going to have a post-Christmas vacation in Hong Kong.
The Sandiganbayan, the anti-graft and corruption court of the Philippines, today announced that it has allowed former Senator Jinggoy Estrada to travel to Hong Kong with his family on Dec. 26 to 31.
The court allowed this despite the existence of a plunder case filed against Estrada and opposition coming from his prosecutors. In a resolution promulgated on Dec. 12, the court said that “the right to travel is a constitutional right which cannot be impaired except in cases provided for by law,” reported the Manila Bulletin.
In his request, Estrada said that he wanted to travel to Hong Kong to “have more time to relax” with his family, reported ABS-CBN News.
The court earlier allowed him to travel to the United States for what he said were speaking engagements held in April and May this year. He was also allowed to travel to Singapore where he allegedly accompanied his mother Loi Ejercito for a medical checkup, reported GMA News.
GMA News reported that prosecutors opposed Estrada’s trip due to lack of urgency and also because he failed to provide an itinerary of his vacation and a phone number in which he can be reached once he is in Hong Kong.
However, the Sandiganbayan decided that the PHP2.66 million (more than US$38,918) bail which Estrada posted in November last year is proof that the former lawmaker “shall continue to guarantee his faithful compliance with the conditions imposed herein.”
Estrada is facing a plunder case where he was accused of pocketing as much as PHP183 million (more than US$3.448 million) from the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), a government fund supposed to be used to fund projects, with the help of businesswoman Janet Napoles.
In 2013, the Commission on Audit (COA) released a report that allegedly showed Estrada and fellow Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Ramon “Bong” Revilla funneling a percentage of their PDAF to fake non-governmental organizations led by Napoles.
Estrada was jailed in 2014 but was released on bail three years later. Revilla has been acquitted, a fact which Estrada said raises his hopes of getting the same favorable decision.
However, this is not the first time that Estrada was charged with plunder. He was acquitted of the crime in 2007, while his co-accused and father, former President Joseph Ejercito Estrada, was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. However, the elder Estrada was granted pardon by then-president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo shortly after his conviction.
Like Revilla and Enrile, Estrada is trying to make a comeback in politics by running for a Senate seat in next year’s mid-term elections.
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