Jinggoy seeks court’s nod for Singapore trip

MANILA, Philippines —  Former senator Jinggoy Estrada has asked the Sandiganbayan to allow him to leave the country for eight days to accompany his mother to a medical checkup in Singapore.

In his motion filed before the anti-graft court’s Fifth Division, Estrada prayed to be allowed to travel to Singapore from Oct. 1 to 8.

Estrada said his 87-year old mother Loi Ejercito-Estrada asked him to accompany her in a medical examination at the Singapore Brain-Spine Nerves Center at Mount Elizabeth Hospital for her “chronic lower back pain.”

Estrada said it was his mother's personal physician in the Philippines, Dr. Regina Bagsic, who recommended that she be examined by a neurosurgeon at Mount Elizabeth Hospital.

Estrada assured that as in his previous travels, “he will comply with all the conditions of the Court” should it grant his motion.

Estrada is facing plunder and 11 counts of graft before the Fifth Division in connection with the alleged misuse of millions of pesos of his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel during his term as a senator.

He is accused of receiving P183 million worth of kickbacks from the 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 foundations for the supposed implementation of his livelihood projects.

The Office of the Ombudsman, which filed the cases in June 2014, said Estrada’s projects turned out to be “ghost” or fictitious.

Estrada was detained in the Philippine National Police Custodial Center at Camp Crame from June 2014 until the Fifth Division allowed him on Sept. 15, 2017 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.