Detained Senator Jinggoy Estrada will be permitted to step out of jail for a single afternoon this week to have both knees imaged, after the Sandiganbayan’s Fifth Division approved his request over the objection of state prosecutors.
Under the terms set by the anti-graft court, the senator may exit the New Quezon City Jail in Payatas at 11 a.m. on Aug. 26 and must be back inside the facility no later than 3 p.m. that day. The court attached financial conditions to the release, ruling that Estrada alone will cover the cost of the hospital work, his transport, and any related charges. The procedure itself, according to his filing, runs only 15 to 30 minutes and will take place at a private hospital in San Juan.
Estrada had gone to the Fifth Division seeking leave for the imaging, citing what he described in his motion as a flare-up of “persistent pain in both knees.” He told the court he carries an earlier diagnosis of osteoarthritis and has since developed joint effusion along with on-and-off pain in both knees, to the point that walking has become difficult. His orthopedic physician, he said, advised the X-rays as a way to check whether the condition has deteriorated.
Prosecutors pushed back on the request. They contended that the senator’s stated condition rested on neither a direct clinical evaluation nor medical findings verified by an independent party. Rather than a hospital trip, the state’s lawyers floated other routes — among them mobile X-ray units that could be brought to the jail, or examinations at government medical facilities.
The division, headed by Associate Justice Zaldy Trespeses, ultimately sided with Estrada and cleared the motion with strings attached.
The senator remains behind bars on plunder charges tied to his alleged role in the flood control scandal.
