Sandigan rejects Jinggoy’s bid to consolidate cases
MANILA, Philippines — The Sandiganbayan Fifth Division has rejected Sen. Jinggoy Estrada’s bid to consolidate the plunder and graft cases filed against him in another division as doing so will “unduly delay” proceedings.
Estrada is charged with one count of graft before the anti-graft court’s Second Division and another graft charge and one plunder case before the Fifth Division. The cases stem from his alleged involvement in budget insertions and a kickback scheme related to flood control projects.
In an eight-page resolution, the Fifth Division, chaired by Associate Justice Zaldy Trespeses, ruled there is no basis to consolidate the cases as they involve two different transactions.
It said the graft case it is handling involves P350 million worth of alleged flood control projects in Metro Manila and Oriental Mindoro while the graft case before the Second Division involves P213.75 million worth of flood control projects in Bulacan.
“Thus, to consolidate these two cases involving wholly different acts or transactions would be to halt their progress in separate divisions so that they can be tried in the same proceedings, one after the other,” the resolution read.
It also pointed out that the graft case before the Second Division only involves Estrada and former Department of Public Works and Highways secretary Manuel Bonoan while the one in the 5th Division includes three officials from the DPWH National Capital Region office, therefore, consolidating the cases will compel the three engineers to participate “in proceedings they are complete strangers to.”
The anti-graft court also said there are pending petitions for bail in the plunder case filed by the three DPWH officials – Denryl Cortuna, Manny Bulusan and Arturo Gonzales – and if the cases are consolidated or jointly tried, these “stand to be stalled for as long as the court conducts hearings on the bail petitions.”
“Proceeding independently, on the other hand, the anti-graft cases, which do not require a bail hearing, may go directly to trial,” the court said.
Estrada had argued that all three cases stemmed from related transactions involving alleged insertions in the 2025 national budget and proposed having them consolidated under the Second Division since it handles the case with the lowest docket number.
He further contended that all cases are “hinged on substantially similar transactions,” and that having separate trials “stand to come up with conflicting findings and inconsistent rulings.”
For its part, the prosecution argued that consolidating the cases under the “lowest-docket rule” would transfer the principal and most serious charge of plunder to another division, pointing out that the plunder charge was assigned to the Fifth Division through the court’s raffle system “to ensure an impartial, random, and equitable distribution of cases.”
Estrada is currently detained at the New Quezon City Jail in Payatas after he was arrested on June 1 following the issuance of an arrest warrant against him over the non-bailable plunder charge.
He, however, has posted bail for his two graft cases.
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