Jinggoy asks Manila court to lift travel ban order
After seeking travel clearance from the Sandiganbayan, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada has also asked a Manila court to lift the precautionary hold departure order (PHDO) issued against him in connection with the plunder and graft complaint he faces in the Department of Justice (DOJ) over allegedly anomalous flood control projects.
Bianca Soriano, Estrada’s spokesperson and counsel, told reporters at the DOJ on Thursday that they filed an omnibus motion before the Manila Regional Trial Court’s Branch 52, asking it to reconsider and lift the PHDO against the senator.
Not a flight risk
Soriano said the PHDO should be lifted because its issuance meant the court had “already attacked the evidentiary nature that there is no probable cause.” She also stressed that Estrada, who also faces a separate graft case before the Sandiganbayan, is “not a flight risk.”
“It should be lifted because the rules require that there should be probable cause, and second, the respondent is a flight risk,” Soriano said.
“As we’ve seen in the Sandiganbayan, he has been complying with the necessary requirements for him to travel,” she added.
On Tuesday, Estrada sought permission to travel from the antigraft court where he is charged with graft over his alleged misuse of P200 million in “pork barrel” funds in 2014.
Personal trip
He told the Sandiganbayan’s Fifth Division that he was planning to go on a personal trip to Hong Kong, Macau and Japan, from March 31 to April 5.
The Manila court issued the PHDO in February against Estrada and his coaccused in the plunder and graft case, among them former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials led by ex-Secretary Manuel Bonoan.
The order directs the Bureau of Immigration to bar the accused from leaving the country.
Justice Undersecretary Polo Martinez, who is also the DOJ spokesperson, said that they have yet to determine whether or not to oppose Estrada’s motion before the Manila court because they have not received a copy of the document.
According to him, the DOJ’s application for a PHDO with the court was triggered by Bonoan’s failure to make good on his promise to return from the United States on Dec. 17 last year. The former DPWH secretary came back to the Philippines a month later.
Estrada went to the DOJ on Thursday to file his counter-affidavit in the plunder and graft complaint against him. The case, which is still being examined by state prosecutors, was filed by the National Bureau of Investigation in connection with substandard and nonexistent infrastructure projects in Bulacan province.
Martinez said the case has been submitted for resolution, with the decision expected to be released in the next 60 days, unless an extension is sought.
