Sandiganbayan denies Jinggoy Estrada's bid to merge graft and plunder cases
The Sandiganbayan Fifth Division refused to allow Sen. Jinggoy Estrada to consolidate the plunder and graft charges filed against him.
Estrada is facing one count of graft before the Sandiganbayan's Second Division, and another graft charge and a plunder case before the Fifth Division. All are connected to his alleged involvement in the flood control scam, with supposed budget insertions and a kickback scheme in some projects.
He asked the anti-graft court to consolidate all three cases under the Second Division, as it handles the case with the lowest docket number. According to Estrada, all the cases are connected to related transactions that involve alleged insertions in the 2025 national budget.
Per the senator, these are "hinged on substantially similar transactions." To have them tried in separate courts may result in "conflicting findings and inconsistent rulings."
In its eight-page resolution, the Fifth Division, chaired by Associate Justice Zaldy Trespeses, wrote that consolidating the cases would "unduly delay" the senator's court proceedings. According to the court, merging the cases has no basis as the charges stem from two different transactions.
One graft case, assigned to the Fifth Division, involves P350 million worth of alleged flood control projects in Metro Manila and Oriental Mindoro. Aside from Estrada, the co-accused in the case are three officials from the Department of Public Works and Highways National Capital Region office: Denryl Cortuna, Manny Bulusan, and Arturo Gonzales.
The other graft case, which is being handled by the Second Division, has to do with P213.75 million worth of flood control projects in Bulacan. It involves Estrada and former DPWH secretary Manuel Bonoan, who is currently confined in a private hospital under police custody.
"To consolidate these two cases involving wholly different acts or transactions would be to halt their progress in separate divisions so that they can be tried in the same proceedings, one after the other," the court's resolution read.
Further, the court said, by merging the cases, which have different sets of respondents, it will force the three engineers in the case under the Fifth Division to participate "in proceedings they are complete strangers to."
The Fifth Division added that consolidating the cases will delay pending petitions for bail filed by the three DPWH officials, Estrada's co-accused in the plunder case. If the cases are merged, the motions for bail "stand to be stalled for as long as the court conducts hearings on the bail petitions," the court wrote.
On the other hand, if the cases proceed independently, "the anti-graft cases, which do not require a bail hearing, may go directly to trial," it added.
Estrada has been detained at the New Quezon City Jail in Payatas since his June 1 arrest for the non-bailable plunder charge. He has posted bail for his two graft charges.
The senator is currently under a 90-day preventive suspension ordered by the Sandiganbayan on June 17. With the suspension, Estrada is barred from performing his legislative duties and receiving his salary and benefits. His office and staff, however, can continue to operate.
According to Senate Secretary Renato Bantug, the suspension also prohibits Estrada from performing as a senator-judge.
On June 22, the Senate implemented the suspension.
"The Senate president officially notified the office of Senator Estrada that the suspension order issued by the Sandiganbayan will be implemented or was implemented beginning June 22," said Bantug in a briefing with reporters on Thursday.
