Sandiganbayan waives cross-exam of witnesses in Jinggoy Estrada graft cases

The Sandiganbayan Fifth Division on Thursday waived the chance for Senator Jinggoy Estrada’s lawyer to cross-examine two witnesses in the 11 counts of graft charges he is facing over the alleged misuse of around P255 million from his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

This came after Estrada’s co-accused—former National Livelihood Development Corporation (NLDC) president Gondelina Amata and former Technology Research Center group manager Francisco Figura—moved to waive the scheduled cross-examination by Estrada’s counsel, Atty. Paul Mar Arias.

Amata and Figura were supposed to take the stand to defend themselves against the charges.

Their motions were seconded by the prosecution, and with Arias not yet present in the courtroom at the time, the anti-graft court ruled in their favor.

The next hearings on the 11 graft cases against Estrada and his co-accused are scheduled on 10 March and 18 April.

The Sandiganbayan earlier cleared Estrada of plunder amounting to P183 million, as well as direct bribery and two counts of indirect bribery, over the alleged misuse of his PDAF.

In acquitting Estrada of plunder, the court said prosecutors failed to prove his guilt beyond reasonable doubt, noting that he was not aware of the scheme allegedly concocted by Janet Lim Napoles, who had been making a business out of PDAF.

The Sandiganbayan also ruled that Estrada was not guilty of direct bribery and two counts of indirect bribery due to lack of evidence, saying that aside from the P1 million deposited to Estrada’s Bank of Commerce account on 18 September 2008 reflected in prosecution witness Benhur Luy’s “9/18/2008” Summary of Rebates, no other proof was presented showing money was sent to Estrada.