Court denies Jinggoy bid to attend VP Sara impeach trial

The Sandiganbayan Fifth Division junked the motion of accused Senator Jinggoy Estrada requesting for the ability to attend the impeachment trial against Vice President Sara Duterte due to a lack of merit.

In the motion submitted by Estrada to the anti-graft court, the senator was said to have indicated two grounds to justify the need for his participation in the constitutional proceedings.

For one, the senator argued that he considered the provision of Philippine law which mandates that a public official could only be convicted through a concurrent vote from two-thirds of all the members of the Senate–16 out of 24 senators.

Estrada likewise pointed out that his participation in the proceedings as a senator-judge was in itself a “compelling reason” to serve as a basis for his temporary leave from his detention at the New Quezon City Jail - Male Dormitory in Payatas as it was a “high constitutional duty.”

However, for the Sandiganbayan, the motion was not unique in nature given that similar requests from public officials were also passed upon in the past.

The court cited Supreme Court rulings on the case of Trillanes IV v. Pimentel, Sr. and People v. Hon. Maceda wherein it was established that any accused public official must remain imprisoned unless the same was able to post bail.

It was also indicated in the resolution that the relief that Estrada sought was not necessarily an emergency, given that the trial dates set for the impeachment proceedings would last around 31 weeks.

The justices crafting the resolution further noted that the mere “constitutional importance” of the trial could not be used for his case as allowing him to participate in the impeachment of the Vice President would constitute a continuing and recurring leave from detention.

“Such a prolonged and recurring arrangement cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be considered an emergency or compelling temporary leave from detention,” it said.

Estrada was filed with a case of plunder and graft last June as he was alleged to have received kickbacks amounting to P573-million from the infrastructure portfolio of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in 2025.

The lawmaker is the one of two sitting senators currently charged with plunder as Senator Rodante Marcoleta was charged with the same last Monday, 6 July.