MANILA, Philippines — After nearly three months since he was freed from detention through bail, former Sen. Jinggoy Estrada is now seeking the court's permission for a six-day holiday vacation in Hong Kong with his family.
In his motion filed before the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division, Estrada said his family intends to spend the holidays in Hong Kong from December 26 to 31, 2017.
“After accused-movant was allowed bail, the family have been longing for bonding outside of the country. The Christmas holidays would be the most opportune time to have this,” Estrada's motion read.
Estrada said he would submit a detailed itinerary should the court allow his request but said that his family intends to stay at the Marco Polo chain of hotels for the entire duration of the trip.
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Estrada maintained that he is not a flight risk as proven by his return to the country after he accompanied his father, former president and incumbent Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada in a medical check-up in Singapore last month.
The younger Estrada said he had long promised to his wife Precy and their children Janella, Jolo, Julian and Jill that, if the court permits, “all of them will take a holiday trip to a near Asian country.”
Estrada said they chose Hong Kong as their travel destination “due to ease of securing flight and hotel bookings.”
The Fifth Division had earlier issued a hold departure order against the younger Estrada for his pending cases of plunder and 11 counts of graft in connection with the alleged misuse of his Priority Development Assistance Fund or pork barrel during his term as a senator.
He is accused of receiving P183-million worth of kickbacks from alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles in exchange for allocating portions of his PDAF from 2004 to 2012 to the latter's bogus NGOs for the supposed implementation of his livelihood projects.
The Office of Ombudsman, which filed the cases in June 2014, said Estrada's projects turned out to be “ghost” or fictitious.
Estrada was detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame, Quezon City since June 2014 for his plunder case. But on September 15 of this year, the Fifth Division allowed him to post bail on the ground of the supposed lack of evidence from the prosecution showing that he is the “main plunderer” in the case.