MANILA — It seems that detained Senator Jinggoy Estrada runs out of luck after the Sandiganbayan on Monday denied his five-hour furlough to attend to his mother’s 85th birthday.
Just last March, the Fifth Division had allowed Estrada to leave his detention to attend the high school graduation of his son. In November last year, he was also allowed to undergo four therapy sessions at Cardinal Santos Medical Center in Greenhills, San Juan, in connection with his shoulder pain.
But this time, the court pointed out that what Estrada was seeking was neither a matter of humanitarian consideration nor emergency in nature.
“Allowing the accused to hear mass outside the confines of his prison would accord him the liberties of a free man with all the privileges appurtenant to his position… at the risk of creating a bad precedent, therefore, accused’s reprieve from jail for his natal day cannot be accommodated,” the motion said.
The Fifth Division, in denying Estrada’s motion, sided with the prosecution’s argument that an accused of a criminal case should not be accorded his full civil and political rights and that granting his motion “would set a bad precedent.”
“Accused cannot be accorded the full enjoyment of his civil and political rights as a necessary consequence of his detention,” the anti-graft court said in its three-page resolution. “Incarceration, by its nature, changes an individual’s status in society. Verily, confinement restrain the power of locomotion or actual physical movement.”
On Wednesday last week, Estrada, through his legal counsel, asked the court that he be allowed to leave his place of detention for five hours to attend the birthday party of his mother, former Senator Loi Ejercito-Estrada, at Blue Leaf events pavilion at Filipinas Asiana City in Parañaque City.
Estrada originally asked that he be allowed to leave his detention from 8 p.m. on June 2 (Tuesday) until 1 a.m. on June 3 (Wednesday) in time for the thanksgiving Mass and dinner for his mother’s 85th birthday.
But in a supplemental motion filed on Friday, Estrada informed the court that the celebration was moved to June 5 at the same time and venue.
“Wherefore, the motion to allow accused Sen. Jinggoy Estrada for a pass on June 5, 2015 to be with his Mother on her 85th Birthday filed by Sen. Estrada is DENIED,” the Fifth Division said in their resolution.
Estrada is currently detained at the Philippine National Police (PNP) Custodial Center in Camp Crame for plunder and graft charges in connection to his alleged involvement in the pork barrel scam.