Jinggoy denied bail by SC

Voting 9-4, the Supreme Court (SC) junked yesterday the petition for bail filed by jailed former San Juan Mayor Jose "Jinggoy" Estrada in connection with the plunder charge filed against him before the Sandiganbayan.

However, the SC required the Sandiganbayan to conduct hearings to determine if evidence of Estrada’s guilt is strong enough to warrant the denial of bail.

Estrada had elevated the case to the SC after the Sandiganbayan denied his petition for bail. The anti-graft court had deemed his petition baseless.

The Constitution provides that persons charged with capital offenses are not entitled to bail when the evidence of guilt is strong.

"This requires that the trial court conduct hearings wherein both the prosecution and the defense afford sufficient opportunity to present their respective evidence. The burden of proof lies with the prosecution to show strong evidence of guilt," the court said in a ruling written by Associate Justice Reynato Puno.

The SC also dismissed as a "pretzel interpretation" Jinggoy’s argument that he should not have been charged with plunder because the "amended information" included only a single offense which, he argued, cannot be considered to constitute the crime of plunder.

"To insist that the amended information charged the petitioner the commission of only one act or offense despite the phrase ‘several instances’ (in the anti-plunder law) is to indulge in a twisted, nay, pretzel interpretation," Puno wrote.

The SC noted that Jinggoy was not correct in arguing that he only received P2 million from jueteng lords, freeing him of liability for plunder which requires amounts of at least P50 million.

Jinggoy, the SC ruled, can be held accountable "only for the predicate acts" (of plunder) he allegedly committed.

Dissenting from the majority, Associate Justices Santiago Kapunan, Arturo Buena, Consuelo Ynares-Santiago and Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez voted in favor of Jinggoy’s motion while Associate Justice Antonio Carpio abstained.

The seat of retired Associate Justice Bernardo Pardo has not been filled.

Jinggoy filed the plea for certiorari after the Sandiganbayan denied last Dec. 21 his motion to be allowed to post bail on the charge that he allegedly collected on several instances the aggregate amount of P545 million from gambling bosses.

Jinggoy is accused of plunder along with his father, jailed former President Joseph Estrada, suspected gambling lord Charlie "Atong" and several others.

Father and son are now detained at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) in Quezon City.