Questions over why Senator Jinggoy Estrada appeared in his booking photo with an inmate shirt slung over his shoulders rather than worn drew a direct answer from police on Thursday: nothing in their supply was large enough to fit him.
Col. John Guiagui, who heads the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group’s National Capital Region unit, said staff had Estrada try on every detainee shirt they had on hand during Monday’s booking, but none matched his build. “Walang magkasya na damit sa kanya. We have lahat na ng damit na available sa amin, pinasukat namin, hindi talaga magkasya doon sa build ng katawan niya,” he told reporters.
The official tied the improvised arrangement to the clock. According to Guiagui, the largest size the unit had at the time was extra large, which still did not fit the senator, and the team was already pressed because it was past 6 p.m. and Estrada had to be brought before the Sandiganbayan. “Kaya during the urgency, hindi naman na kami makakuha pa ng ibang sizes during that time ay kailangan nang i-deliver namin sa Sandiganbayan,” he said.
Guiagui rejected any suggestion that the senator had been handled differently from other detainees. He described Estrada’s camp as fully cooperative during the mugshot process and said the episode showed the CIDG had followed standard arrest procedure, with the shirt simply not fitting. He also noted it was not the first instance of a shirt being draped over an arrested person during a mugshot rather than worn. To underscore the point, he pointed out that co-accused and former Public Works secretary Manuel Bonoan had worn the shirt normally.
The clarification followed the Philippine National Police’s formal release of the booking photographs on Thursday. The PNP put out blurred mugshots of Estrada, Bonoan, and three other co-accused tied to the plunder and graft cases arising from the flood control corruption scandal. Images of Estrada holding the orange shirt over his own clothing had already spread online the previous night.
There was a limit to what the regional unit could provide directly. Guiagui said he could not hand over the mugshots himself, explaining that his office had only processed the senator and did not retain the photos.
The cases against Estrada center on a flood control kickback scheme. Estrada and several co-accused, including Bonoan and DPWH officials, were ordered arrested by the Sandiganbayan’s Fifth Division on June 1, with the Ombudsman alleging that more than P573 million in illicit payouts was funneled to the senator. It marks his third plunder case in 25 years. All five accused face graft and plunder before the anti-graft court, and all except Bonoan were committed to the New Quezon City Jail in Payatas.
