Jinggoy Estrada got away with plunder twice. Will there be a 3rd time?

Senator Jinggoy Estrada, son of former president Joseph Estrada, is facing a fresh set of plunder and graft cases.

On May 28, Estrada was charged for allegedly benefiting P573 million from budget insertions on flood control. He was charged along with former officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways, but an arrest warrant has yet to be issued by the Sandiganbayan for the plunder charge.

This is Estrada’s third plunder case in less than three decades. What happened to the first two?

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First plunder: Jueteng operations

In 2001, Estrada faced a plunder charge with his father. They were accused of conspiring with others to acquire alleged ill-gotten wealth amounting to P4 billion, that allegedly came from jueteng operations, kickbacks from tobacco excise taxes, and stock manipulation.

Then-Ilocos Sur governor Chavit Singson, a former ally of the older Estrada, stood as the star witness in the case. He testified that he delivered millions of pesos from jueteng operations to the former president.

Singson claimed that Jinggoy, then San Juan City mayor, was the collector of jueteng money in Bulacan. The senator’s codename was “Jing” in Singson’s documents. At one point, Jinggoy allegedly collected P3 million in Bulacan from a certain Jessie Viceo. (READ: Cast in Erap plunder case: Where are they now?)

In their set-up, the former Ilocos Sur governor said Jinggoy would allegedly retain P1 million of the proceeds, then give the rest to him. Singson would then remit the money to the older Estrada.

According to the testimony, Singson’s ledger only had a single entry for Jinggoy because the former president learned about it and forbade his son from keeping a portion. However, although his name no longer appeared in the file after that, Singson said Jinggoy allegedly continued to receive kickbacks.

Four other witnesses testified that based on Singson’s instructions, they allegedly collected jueteng money from Jinggoy several times and passed this on to Singson himself, who in turn, remitted funds to the former president.

After six years, in 2007, the older Estrada was found guilty of plunder by the Sandiganbayan’s special division. The anti-graft court also ordered the forfeiture of his ill-gotten wealth.

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How Jinggoy got away in his first plunder charge

But Jinggoy was acquitted. The Sandiganbayan acquitted the younger Estrada because Singson’s testimony against him was not convincing enough.

The Court said that the Office of the Ombudsman (the prosecutors) failed to fill in the gaps in the testimony of their star witness, adding that Jinggoy successfully rebutted the allegations against him with documentary evidence.

“[Governor] Singson associates Jinggoy with Viceo allegedly from Bulacan. Who is Viceo? Why was Viceo not charged if it was true that jueteng collections from Bulacan came from him before they passed the hands of Jinggoy? There was no evidence at all that the money Jinggoy Estrada turned over to Gov Singson or the latter’s representatives was part of the jueteng protection money collected from Bulacan,” said the Sandiganbayan.

After his acquittal, Estrada sought a Senate seat in 2010 and placed second with 18,925,925 votes. He was just behind the topnotcher Bong Revilla, who would later be charged alongside him in another plunder case.

Second plunder: Pork barrel scam

After its hearing on the pork barrel scam, the Senate blue ribbon committee recommended the filing of plunder cases against then-senators Estrada, Revilla, and Juan Ponce Enrile in 2014. These three came to be known as the biggest fish in the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) corruption scandal dubbed then as the biggest, too, in recent Philippine history.

In the scam, lawmakers were accused of siphoning off their pork barrel funds to Janet Napoles’ fake non-government organizations (NGO) in exchange for kickbacks. The scheme involved the following: creation of fake NGOs, negotiation between Napoles and lawmakers for kickbacks, then splitting of money.

In April 2014, Estrada was charged with plunder by the Ombudsman which accused him of collecting P183 million in pork barrel kickbacks. He was also charged with 11 counts of graft.

On June 23 of the same year, the Sandiganbayan 5th Division ordered Estrada’s arrest. He surrendered to authorities on the same day.

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Jinggoy Estrada: Take 2

He spent three years in jail because plunder is non-bailable, but was provisionally released in 2017. The 5th Division granted his petition for bail because the evidence at the time did not point to him as a “main plunderer.”‬ The concept of “main plunderer” is one of the main reasons why the Supreme Court acquitted former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of plunder. ‬

After almost a decade, in January 2024, the Sandiganbayan handed down its verdict on Jinggoy Estrada’s plunder case. The 5th Division acquitted Jinggoy of plunder, but convicted him of direct and indirect bribery. (READ: FULL TEXT: Sandiganbayan decision on Jinggoy Estrada’s plunder case)

He was acquitted because the P50-million threshold amount of plunder was not met, but there was evidence to convict him of the lesser offense of bribery. This conviction carried a sentence of eight to nine years for direct bribery, and two to three years for indirect bribery, along with a P3-million fine. (READ: ‘Scam variant’ explained: Estrada accepted bribe, but did not commit plunder?)

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However, in August 2024, the anti-graft court 5th Division granted Estrada’s appeal and acquitted him of the bribery charges. The 5th Division’s Associate Justices Rafael Lagos and Ma. Theresa Mendoza Arcega changed their minds and granted the appeal, while Associate Justice Maryann Corpus Mañalac stuck to her decision.

By rules then, if the justices are not unanimous, two additional justices have to be pulled in to create a special division. Associate Justice Bayani Jacinto voted with Mañalac to sustain the conviction, while Associate Justice Lorifel Lacap Pahimna sided with Lagos and Arcega to reverse the conviction.

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Why Sandiganbayan flipped, cleared Jinggoy Estrada in plunder case

As of writing, Estrada’s graft cases due to the pork barrel scam are still pending.

Third plunder: Flood control

Just two years after his plunder acquittal in the pork barrel case, Estrada found himself entangled again in another corruption controversy.

State witness and former DPWH district engineer Henry Alcantara, in a September 2025 Senate hearing, admitted that there was a P355-million budget insertion for Estrada that came from seven flood control projects in Hagonoy and Malolos, Bulacan. The money allegedly represented 25% of kickbacks that Estrada had received, said Alcantara.

Another state witness and former DPWH undersecretary Roberto Bernardo said in an affidavit that Estrada allegedly received kickbacks from public works projects worth around P2.3 billion.

By May this year, the Ombudsman revealed that it had received the results of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) investigation into Estrada’s alleged involvement in the flood control corruption.

The DOJ found that multiple high-ranking officials and private individuals allegedly conspired to manipulate funds, rig biddings, and then “siphon government funds stemming from major national infrastructure budget systems.” The DOJ then recommended the filing of plunder and graft cases against Estrada and former DPWH secretary Manuel Bonoan.

When the Ombudsman charged Estrada and fellow accused, it said there was an “intricate mechanism” involving illegal budget insertions and project allocations for DPWH projects in 2025. Based on records, the constitutional body said public funds were “deliberately funneled into designated infrastructure projects in exchange for predetermined commission fees or kickbacks.”

“Case records point to an accumulated sum of illicit payouts amounting to an aggregate sum of over P573 million which were systematically delivered to the principal respondent, Senator Jinggoy Estrada,” said the Ombudsman.

Estrada said the Senate Legislative Budget Research and Monitoring Office had a letter indicating there was no record that he had budget insertions for 2025: “This is a major evidence that effectively counter the allegations against me, but it was deliberately left out.”

“This office acknowledges that the LBRMO has issued a certificate regarding the absence of documented initiation of budget insertions by the respondent. However, this certificate does not capture all stages of the budgetary process, wherein insertions may be made in a layered method,” the Ombudsman said.

What now?

On May 29, the Sandiganbayan 2nd Division that handles Estrada’s one count of graft issued a warrant of arrest against him. He posted bail and walked free later on because the 5th Division, which handles the other one count of graft and the non-bailable plunder, has yet to issue a warrant.

Presiding Justice Geraldine Faith Econg chairs the 2nd division, with Associate Justice Edgardo Caldona as senior member. Econg and Caldona were two of the three justices who acquitted Revilla in his plunder case in 2018, and in Revilla’s graft cases in 2021.

The 5th Division, meanwhile, is chaired by Associate Justice Zaldy Trespeses, with Associate Justice Maryann Corpus Mañalac and Associate Justice Gener Gito as senior and junior members, respectively.

Trespeses was among the justices who dissented in the Sandiganbayan resolution granting Estrada bail for his pork barrel case in 2017.

Corpus Mañalac, meanwhile, consistently voted to convict Estrada in his bribery cases. She concurred in the decision convicting the senator of direct and indirect bribery, and dissented in the resolution that acquitted Estrada.

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Judge who freed De Lima appointed as Sandiganbayan justice

Lastly, Gito is the Muntinlupa judge who freed Mamamayang Liberal representative Leila de Lima. Gito granted De Lima’s bail in November 2023, which paved the way for the former senator’s freedom after almost seven years. Months later, in June 2024, Gito also acquitted De Lima in her third and last drug case. – Rappler.com