Plunder and corruption cases have been filed against a Philippine senator and other former high officials on Thursday in connection with the festering flood control infrastructure projects rocking the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. government.
The Office of the Ombudsman filed the charges against Senator Jinggoy Estrada and Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials, including former Secretary Manuel Bonoan and district engineers.
Sandiganbayan has immediately raffled the cases to its fifth and second divisions. An arrest against Estrada and the others are imminent.
Earlier, the country’s Bureau of Immigration has issued lookout orders against the senator should he decide to flee the country like former congressman Elizalde Co who is also implicated in flood control corruption worth hundreds of billions of pesos.
Flood control mess
The latest plunder case against the senator was based on revelations by DPWH assistant district engineer Brice Hernandez who revealed that Estrada maneuvered to allocate P355 million through insertions in the 2025 national budget – said to be the dirtiest budget ever – in exchange for a 30 per cent cut.
The Philippine Department of Justice had recommended the filing of charges.
For his part, Estrada has denied the accusations, adding that the charges were filed because he is allied with Vice President Sara Duterte, herself about to face an impeachment trial at the Senate. Estrada had been sworn last week as one of the 24 senator-judges to try Duterte.
Estrada said Thursday he was not given the opportunity to study the complaints to enable him to properly explain himself. He added that according to Senate records, he had no hand in 2025 national budget insertions with which anomalous flood control projects were funded.
“This is an important piece of evidence that blatantly refutes all the allegations against me, but it was deliberately set aside,” Estrada said.
Sara Duterte impeachment related development
Estrada acknowledged that the development is most likely connected to the tense wrangling at the Senate on who gets to be the majority bloc as the impeachment trial against Duterte nears.
“[S]ince the change of leadership in the Senate, the progress of cases involving several members of the majority bloc has been rapid,” the senator pointed out.
Once arrested, Estrada’s absence during the impeachment trial would revert the Senate majority to pro-trial judges, who are seen to likely convict Duterte.
The current majority bloc that counts Estrada as among its staunchest members are regarded as pro-Duterte and are likely to absolve Marcos Jr.’s bitter rival from charges of corruption, unexplained wealth and grave threats.
History of plunder accusations
It will not be the first time that the senator would be in jail on plunder and corruption accusations. The charges are non-bailable.
Estrada was first imprisoned on plunder charges in April 2001 and was acquitted and released in 2007.
He was arrested and detained alongside his father, former President Joseph Estrada, for their alleged involvement in a P4 billion hidden wealth and illegal gambling.
In January 2024, Estrada was also charged with plunder for allegedly amassing ₱183.79 million in kickbacks by funneling his pork barrel into bogus non-governmental organizations linked to ghost project agent Janet Lim-Napoles.
Ironically, he had been named as vice-chairperson of the Senate’s Committee on Accountability of Public Officers and Investigations (Blue Ribbon) this week. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
