Senator Jinggoy Estrada is likely to remain at liberty temporarily despite a warrant of arrest from the Sandiganbayan after he posted bail on Friday for graft charges filed against him in connection with the alleged kickbacks he received from flood control projects.
The Ombudsman recommended no bail for the lawmaker on plunder charges. However, graft is bailable under the Republic Act 3019, with the amount generally set at P90,000 per count by the anti-graft court.
Estrada personally posted bail before the Sandiganbayan, shortly after the Second Division ordered his arrest over the alleged P573 million in kickbacks he allegedly pocketed from flood control projects.
“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,” Estarada stressed.
Posting bail, however, does not guarantee that an accused will remain at liberty in the face of a warrant, especially if he is charged with a separate non-bailable case. This suggests that there is still a high chance that Estrada’s petition for temporary release will not materialize, and he will be detained depending on the court’s decision.
Estarada firmly maintained that he is innocent, calling the corruption charges against him “unfounded and without merit.” Nonetheless, he averred that he trusts the rule of law and independence of judicial institutions. He contended that his personal appearance at the Sandiganbayan is an indication that he is in good faith.
“I hope for fair treatment, due process, and impartiality in the hearing of this case. I trust that in the end, justice and truth will prevail,” Estada said.
The lawmaker from San Juan had flagged “procedural irregularities” in the Ombudsman’s filing of plunder and graft charges against him at the Sandiganbayan on Thursday. He suggested the case was politically motivated and hastily prepared without proper and independent fact-finding and that the Ombudsman relied solely on the Department of Justice's resolution, which was just issued last week.
He accused the DOJ and the Ombudsman of infringing on his right to due process, arguing that he was “not given an opportunity to study the resolutions properly” and to file a motion for reconsideration before the case was elevated to the Sandiganbayan for court hearings.
The DOJ’s recommendation to file plunder, graft, and bribery charges against Estrada and several former Department of Public Works and Highways officials formed the basis of the Ombudsman’s case.
Estrada is accused of pocketing hefty kickbacks from several infrastructure projects in Bulacan, one of the country’s top 10 flood-prone provinces.
In a parallel probe by the House of Representatives into the flood control anomalies in September last year, ex-DPWH-Bulacan engineer Brice Hernandez alleged that Estrada received at least P350 million in commission as the “proponent” of flood control projects in Bulacan. The amount represents the 30 percent “SOP” or cut that was purportedly agreed upon by the lawmaker and higher-ups in the DPWH.
Bulacan has been tagged as the “most notorious” in the corruption scheme in the flood control projects, which recorded the highest number of anti-flood projects from July 2022 to May 2025, with 668. The province received the lion’s share of P98 billion in flood control funds allocated for Central Luzon, with a whopping P44 billion. Despite the massive allocation, Bulacan continues to suffer from severe flooding, fuelling speculations of corruption, substandard, ghost, and incomplete projects.
Estrada asserted that there’s nothing in legislative records that could attest to the allegations of Hernandez that he was a recipient of flood control kickbacks. He argued that this alone “refutes all the allegations against me, but it was deliberately set aside [by the Ombudsman].”
Aside from the fresh round of corruption charges, Estrada is also facing 11 counts of graft before the Sandiganbayan in connection with the pork barrel scam. In 2024, he was acquitted by the anti-graft court of plunder due to a supposed lack of sufficient evidence to prove that he amassed P183 million in kickbacks from bogus projects, although he was convicted of a lesser offense—bribery and indirect bribery.
In 2001, the senator was also embroiled in a separate plunder case involving his father, former president Joseph Estrada, over illegal jueteng operations, but he was eventually acquitted by the Sandiganbayan in 2007.