A P90,000 bail bond bought Senator Jinggoy Estrada his freedom on Friday, May 29, but only against the lighter of the charges tied to the multibillion-peso flood control scandal — and only for now.
The reprieve is fragile. The graft counts he answered before the Sandiganbayan’s Second Division are bailable; the plunder case waiting in the Fifth Division is not. Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla said a non-bailable warrant from that division could come down as soon as Monday. A conviction on plunder carries life imprisonment.
Estrada chose to present himself rather than wait to be taken in. “I am personally posting bail before the Sandiganbayan in relation to the arrest warrant issued by its Second Division,” he said in a statement posted online, framing the move as voluntary submission to the court.
He rejected the accusations outright, saying he would lean on due process and trusted that the truth would surface. “Posting bail is a legal remedy available to me under our justice system, and I intend to avail myself of every lawful means to defend myself and clear my name,” he added.
The figure at the center of the case is P573 million — kickbacks the Office of the Ombudsman alleges Estrada collected for funneling flood control contracts his way, through budget insertions and manipulated project allocations at the Department of Public Works and Highways. The Ombudsman lodged the plunder count and two graft counts against him on Thursday.
When he arrived at the anti-graft court, Estrada stayed silent before reporters and moved with a noticeable limp, surrounded by security. Remulla attributed that to a knee condition the senator needs surgery for.
Former Public Works Secretary Manuel Bonoan, charged alongside him, posted the same P90,000 amount.
This is familiar terrain for Estrada, who was jailed from 2014 to 2017 during the pork barrel scandal before the Sandiganbayan let him out on P1.33 million bail; eleven graft charges from that era are still open against him. Among those swept up in the flood control fiasco, he is the most senior official ordered arrested, following former senator Bong Revilla and former congressman Zaldy Co into the dock.
