Jinggoy optimistic Sandigan to grant bail petition

MANILA, Philippines - Believing that the case against him is weak, detained Sen. Jinggoy Estrada is optimistic that the Sandiganbayan would grant his petition for bail in the plunder charge that he is facing.

“I am hopeful as I am confident that the court will resolve the bail petition in our favor given the set of evidence that have already been presented in court,” he said.

“From the beginning, the case is defective and weak as a result of railroading the preliminary investigation and failure to observe due process of law. They were eager to jail those who are not allies. So they fast-tracked the filing of the case even if they knew that they had no evidence against me.”

The prosecution’s last witness, chief administrative officer Marissa Santos of the Department of Budget and Management’s Central Records Division, told the court last Monday she has custody of two Special Allotment Release Orders pertaining to the allocation of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) of Estrada to bogus foundations.     

The prosecution and the defense have agreed that no direct examination and cross-examination will be made on Santos. She will reportedly be subjected to cross-examination during trial proper.

Estrada welcomed the prosecution’s resting of its case.

“After 15 months, they finally finished the presentation of their supposed strongest evidence against me for purposes of bail,” he said.

“We will wait for the formal offer of evidence of the prosecution after the non-extendible period of 10 days (and five days thereafter were given for us to comment) and then we shall present our own set of evidence to controvert their allegations.”

As far as he is concerned, the prosecution has only presented hearsay testimony, witnesses with dubious backgrounds and motives, and documents/reports that do not have any probative value or evidentiary integrity, Estrada said.