Still in his vacation in Los Angeles, California until the end of Holy Week, Senator Jinggoy Estrada is very much aware on what is happening in the Philippines including dragging of his name on the Pork Barrel Scam along with fellow senators Ramon Bong Revilla Jr. and Juan Ponce Enrile and other personalities. This started when Janet Lim-Napoles was arrested and named as the mastermind of the said Pork Barrel Scam. Estrada was included among the politicians who received the said pork allocation. In line with this, he will be facing plunder case once again in connection with the multimillion-peso pork barrel allocations that the Office of the Ombudsman filled against him.
In regards with the call of his detractors to resign, Estrada is firm with his decision to stay in his position and ready to face all the charges even going to jail once the Ombudsman finally release their decision. He said that he was voted into office by 18 million Filipinos and he will going to serve up to the last day of his term.
Meanwhile, Sen. Chiz Escudero explained that Senate leadership would no longer need to decide on the suspension of Estrada, Enrile and Revilla Jr., once the Ombudsman’s office files charges against them and the Sandiganbayan finds valid. With that decision they will be suspended from their position as senators. This is in connection with the Section 5 of Republic Act 7080 or the Act Defining and Penalizing the Crime of Plunder where any public officer against whom any criminal prosecution under a valid information under this Act in whatever stage of execution and mode of participation, is pending in court, shall be suspended from office.
For Estrada this was not his first time to face plunder case and put to jail because of it. He was put to jail along with his father former President and now Manila Mayor Joseph Ejercito Estrada in 2001 because of the P4.097-billion plunder case. They were detained for two years at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City before they were airlifted to the Special Action Forces Training Center in Fort Sto. Domingo, Sta. Rosa City, Laguna.
He mentioned that if ever he will be detained again he will requesting for a special detention facilities and treatment when the anti-graft court orders his arrest along with fellow senators.
