MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday denied Sen. Jose "Jinggoy" Estrada's petition to exclude the testimony of pork barrel scam whistleblower Benhur Luy as evidence.
Luy turned over disbursement reports of JLN Corporation, a company owned by Janet Lim Napoles, who is alleged to be behind the P10-billion pork barrel and P900 -illion Malampaya Fund scams.
The files were contained in Luy's external hard drive and handed over to the National Bureau of Investigation-Cybercrime Investigation Unit.
Estrada's camp argued that the Luy violated the Cybercrime Law for disclosing electronic files that were not his property and which was done without a court warrant.
"As an employee of JLN Corporation, Mr. Luy does not own purported Disbursement Reports even if he supposedly encoded such electronic files, as intellectual property produced by an employee contemplated by such contract of employment belongs to the employer and not to the employee," Estrada said.
In his petition, Estrada said that his constitutional right was violated and that the Sandiganbayan committed grave abuse of discretion.
"Senator Estrada comes before this Honorable Supreme Court seeking its protection, this time from the actions of the Honorable Sandiganbayan in violation of his Constitutional right against unreasonable searches and seizure, and made without or in excess of jurisdiction or with grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction," the petition read.
The senator also filed a temporary restraining order for the Sandiganbayan to admit the disbursement reports as evidence, which the SC dismissed.
“The Court denied the petitioner’s request for TRO but required respondents to comment on the petition within 10 days from notice,” SC Public Information Office Chief and Spokesman Atty. Theodore Te said in a press conference.
Estrada is currently under detention for plunder and graft charges filed against him in connection with the his alleged involvement in the pork barrel scam.
Two SC justices earlier expressed that Estrada's right to due process was violated when the Office of the Ombudsman denied him access to documents and affidavits during the investigation of the pork barrel scam.
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