Jinggoy on his bail plea: It’s time for a resolution

Sen. Jinggoy Estrada. Photo courtesy of Estrada’s Facebook page.

MANILA — After a year of being indicted for plunder, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada said it’s about time for  the Sandiganbayan to decide on his petition for bail.

He then called  on the Office of the Ombudsman to finish their presentation of evidence to allow the court to decide on his case.

“I am hoping that the prosecution would wrap its case sooner than later and finally allow the court to decide on the case,” he said.

“One long year has passed and the prosecutors have neither presented nor proven strong evidence of guilt against me. I think that is enough time for them to argue their case and I believe they failed to substantiate their theory against me,” Estrada said.

Estrada also criticized the prosecution’s presentation adding that it should have been presented in summary.

“All they had presented before the court are hearsay testimony and speculation from the so-called whistleblowers which do not have probative value,” Estrada said.

“The hearing on the bail petition took too long. Even the presiding justice once remarked in open court that by this time, the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses would already be corroborative in nature and therefore redundant and unnecessary,” he added.

He also said that they have not presented valuable evidence to the allgeations that he received money from co-accused businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles.

“Their key witnesses have unequivocally declared in the course of the proceedings that they have no personal knowledge that I allegedly received money from Mrs. Napoles and from my PDAF allocation, ultimately because such did not ever happen and there is absolutely no shred of truth to their allegations,” he said.