Jinggoy defends stripping Senate office to its carcass

Senator Jinggoy Estrada’s camp said Tuesday that “not a single centavo” of public funds was spent on the fixtures and materials removed from his former office before it was turned over to Senator Tito Sotto, saying Estrada personally paid for the tiles, glass panels, lighting fixtures and other items.

Estrada is detained on a plunder charge in connection with the flood control scandal. His camp issued the statement in response to criticism that he had wasted taxpayers’ money.

“Let it be stressed, in no uncertain terms, that not a single centavo of public funds was wasted. In fact, the Senate will bear no cost whatsoever for office supplies and materials, as most, if not all, of those used in the previous office will simply be reused in the new one,” his statement read. It added that the resident Commission on Audit auditor had been informed.

The statement followed a viral video showing Estrada’s former office on the Senate’s sixth floor stripped of fixtures, including toilet bowls, sinks, tiles, wall panels, carpets and electrical sockets.

Sotto’s office was reportedly surprised by the condition of the room when his staff inspected it Monday, the turnover deadline. Estrada, however, said his chief of staff had informed Sotto that fixtures, furnishings and other office materials would be transferred to Estrada’s new office.

The office is designated for the Senate president pro tempore, a post Estrada held from May 2024 to September 2025 and now held by Sotto.

Estrada also argued that it is standard Senate practice for the incoming occupant to shoulder renovation costs when the institution’s budget is insufficient, adding that he personally paid for the fixtures and furnishings removed from the office.

Left bare

“It is also worth mentioning…that the said vacated office, when it was turned over to Senator Estrada in 2022, was likewise bare, following this same long-standing practice,” the statement read.

Estrada’s camp also said fixtures and materials had been removed from vacated senators’ offices in the past.

“We trust that this clarifies the matter and respectfully appeal that this routine administrative transition not be unnecessarily politicized, sensationalized, or made into a manufactured controversy where none exists,” it added.

Sen. Ping Lacson disputed Estrada’s claims, saying the office was turned over to Estrada intact in 2022 because its refurbishment had been funded by the government.

“Nothing was removed nor destroyed, precisely because government funds were used when I refurbished it when it was turned over to me,” Lacson said on X, formerly Twitter.