{"id":201805,"date":"2019-02-11T23:10:13","date_gmt":"2019-02-12T04:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=201805"},"modified":"2019-02-11T23:10:13","modified_gmt":"2019-02-12T04:10:13","slug":"palace-defends-duterte-endorsement-of-jinggoys-senate-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/02\/11\/palace-defends-duterte-endorsement-of-jinggoys-senate-bid\/","title":{"rendered":"Palace defends Duterte endorsement of Jinggoy\u2019s senate bid"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his speech during the Peace and Order Summit for Barangay Officials held at the Ibalong Centrum for Recreation in Legazpi City, Albay on February 8, 2019. KARL NORMAN ALONZO\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang on Monday defended the decision of President Rodrigo R. Duterte to include former Senator Jinggoy Estrada on his list of preferred senatorial candidates for the upcoming May elections.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said that the public cannot begrudge the President for endorsing Estrada because he is still presumed innocent despite being accused of plunder in relation to the multi-billion peso \u201cpork barrel\u201d scam.<\/p>\n

\u201cNumber one, Senator Estrada or former Senator Estrada is charged with corruption. And the Constitution says, unless you are convicted by final judgment, you are presumed to be innocent. So the presumption is Estrada is innocent,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

Panelo also pointed out that Estrada has been granted bail by the Sandiganbayan Special 5th Division in 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cNumber two, he\u2019s been granted bail. And the reason for the court\u2019s grant of provisional liberty is anchored on the fact that the evidence of guilt is not strong,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you cannot begrudge the President for endorsing a man who is presumed to be innocent under the law; otherwise you are prejudging him,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Whiff of corruption<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Friday, Duterte endorsed Estrada by raising his hand in a speech in Legazpi City.<\/p>\n

Earlier, the President said he would also endorse Estrada\u2019s half-brother, reelectionist Sen. JV Ejercito.<\/p>\n

Amid criticism that Duterte is endorsing a plunder-accused candidate despite his stance to fire Cabinet officials involved in even a \u201cwhiff\u201d of corruption, Panelo explained that investigation has to run its course.<\/p>\n

\u201cA whiff of corruption does not mean a reckless receipt of an allegation of corruption and a decision to fire the person subject of that information. The President as a lawyer investigates any allegation of corruption before he makes a move,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore he fires people, there\u2019s information that reaches him and he orders an investigation immediately,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Panelo, who is also Chief Presidential Legal Counsel, emphasized that it was \u201cunfair\u201d to presume that a person is guilty unless he or she has been convicted.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my practice of law, even before joining the government, you cannot be assuming and presuming and spreading the guilt of a person unless he\u2019s been finally convicted,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

Panelo insisted that Estrada is not a member of the Cabinet and was accused of plunder when he was a member of the Congress.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Panelo said the President\u2019s endorsement of Estrada will not affect his tough stance versus corruption.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe survey will tell you that the President has made many perceived to be unpopular decisions, and yet the survey remains very high. In other words, Filipino people trust this man. They\u2019re confident and believe in his judgment. And ultimately, it\u2019s the people who will decide anyway,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Presidential slate\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

With only a day left before the start of the campaign season, Panelo said that the President has yet to release an \u201cadministration slate\u201d of candidates.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe (Duterte) has not made any statement on that. Hopefully he will. But until such time, we cannot speculate on whom he will support; except for the names he has already mentioned,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

Panelo, however, said that the President will definitely have his \u201cpreferred candidates\u201d and will actively campaign for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President will endorse certain candidates of his choice so presumably he will be actively campaigning since he is not prohibited by law to do so,\u201d Panelo told reporters in an interview after the press briefing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn endorsement could translate into votes given the popularity of the President but the ultimate judgment will be on the part of the people,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Panelo said that while President may endorse his preferred candidates, he will never use any government resource in support of or against any candidate.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018I will not allow any government fund to be used in support or against any particular candidate,\u2019\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

Duterte has previously endorsed at least 10 candidates namely former Special Assistant to the President Christopher \u201cBong\u201d Go, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief and Bureau of Corrections head Rolando \u201cBato\u201d dela Rosa, and former Presidential Political Affairs Adviser Francis Tolentino.<\/p>\n

He has also endorsed Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos, folk singer Freddie Aguilar, Taguig Rep. Pia Cayetano, and reelectionist senators Sonny Angara and Cynthia Villar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang on Monday defended the decision of President Rodrigo R. Duterte to include former Senator Jinggoy Estrada on his …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":201809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-201805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}