Citing a Supreme Court ruling that allowed the late Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile to post bail, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada filed a motion for reconsideration on Monday urging the Fifth Division of the Sandiganbayan to revisit its July 24 resolution rejecting his bid for temporary freedom.
‘The Supreme Court held that Senator Enrile was entitled to bail regardless of the strength of the evidence [in his plunder case] because he was not a flight risk,’ Estrada said in his motion, adding that ‘he is similarly situated as Senator Enrile’ in that he, too, is not a flight risk.
But Associate Justice Gener Gito, who wrote the resolution, said the issue of bail will be decided first by the strength of the evidence against Estrada.
The detained lawmaker is charged with the nonbailable offense of plunder in connection with ‘illegal budgetary insertions and project allocations’ amounting to P573 million from the Department of Public Works and Highways.