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Sandiganbayan: Prosecution presented strong evidence against Estrada
11 January 2016

          After securing the denial of the petition for bail of Senator Ramon Revilla in 2014, Ombudsman prosecutors scored another victory after the Sandiganbayan rejected Senator Jinggoy Estrada’s petition for bail for his involvement in the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam.

       â€œWe welcome this as good development and I extend my congratulations to our prosecutors,” said Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales.  She added that, “this is in line with my advocacy to whip the corrupt into line.”

        In a 215-page Resolution, the Fifth Division said that the “prosecution has presented strong evidence of guilt against (Estrada).”

           During the bail hearings, prosecutors presented expert witnesses from the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Commission on Audit (COA), Field Investigation Office (FIO), local officials as supposed beneficiaries, and whistleblowers Ruby Tuason, Benhur Luy, Mary Arlene Baltazar, Marina Sula and Merlina Suñas.

           In finding against Estrada, the Sandiganbayan said that Estrada’s letters and project listings “spurred the release of his PDAF allocations” and that “as soon as the SAROs were released to the implementing agencies, Estrada himself indorsed a particular NGO for implementation.”

         The post-audit performed by the COA and the field investigation conducted by the Ombudsman’s FIO show that Estrada’s chosen NGOs, namely:  Social Development Program for Farmers Foundation, Inc.  (SDPFFI) and Masaganang Ani Para sa Magsasaka Foundation Inc. (MAMFI) are dubious and that the project implementation turned out to be “bogus”.   The FIO validated that “the supposed recipients of the projects denied having received or benefitted from any of the agricultural livelihood programs.”

            The court observed that the COA and FIO findings “confirmed the simple yet massive irregularities and anomalies made.”

          The court said that “it should behoove Senator Estrada to fully realize that it was his own legislative fiat which actually determined how such funds were utilized.”

           â€œAs the lawmaker who pre-selected not only the implementing agency concerned but also went as far as indorsing an NGO...no amount of buffering should shield Senator Estrada from an apparent liability under the present charge,”  it added.

           Aside from Estrada, the Sandiganbayan also denied the bail petition of co-accused Janet Lim-Napoles.

              The Resolution explained that “Senator Estrada’s endorsement of SDPFFI and MAMFI provided the crucial edge for Napoles to gain control in the diversion on his PDAF allocations” as “the prosecution evidence at this instance was profuse enough to decipher what was inherently wrong.”

The court threw out Napoles’ defense of denial and said that “the prosecution witnesses Luy, Suñas, Sula and Baltazar have positively identified her as the mastermind in organizing the diversion of the PDAF funds.”

 Expert witness from the AMLC testified that “the control by Napoles over these NGOs became more obvious as fund transfers were directly made from the accounts of SDPFFI and MAMFI to JLN Corporation.”

 On the existence of conspiracy, the Fifth Division said that “the conspiracy in the Estrada case was said to resemble the wheel conspiracy” wherein “the diversion of the PDAF allocations was controlled by a single hub, namely: Senator Estrada as the lawmaker who gave the impetus to release his PDAF allocations to favor Napoles who controlled the spokes of the conspiracy through her networking scheme.”

 The court went a step further and said that “primary whistleblowers Luy, Suñas, Sula, Baltazar and Tuason were just among the many spokes of the wheel, the others being the heads of the implementing agencies, suppliers and others who contributed to the realization of the conduit scheme.”

  In appreciating the testimony of Tuason, the court probed that “whatever her motives are Ruby Tuason is plunging deeper and digging the truth of the PDAF scandal.”   

             The Sandiganbayan gave emphasis on its observation that Senator Estrada “did not deny” or “even attempt to deny” Tuason’s account of “stealthily handling him the money from the transactions using his PDAF.”

               It will be recalled that the Office of the Ombudsman filed Plunder and graft charges against Estrada in connection with the PDAF scam wherein he received P183million in kickbacks.

               Co-accused Pauline Therese Mary Labayen and John Raymund De Asis remain at-large.

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