Sandigan OKs Jinggoy’s Hong Kong vacation

MANILA, Philippines — The Sandiganbayan yesterday granted former senator Jinggoy Estrada’s request to go on a family bonding trip to Hong Kong for Christmas.

The anti-graft court’s Fifth Division allowed Estrada to leave the country from Dec. 26 to 31 despite opposition from ombudsman prosecutors.

“I am grateful to the members of the court for granting my motion to spend Christmas with my family abroad. This means a lot to my family, especially to my children,” he said after attending the hearing.

This is the first time Estrada will leave the country after he was freed on bail in September.

The Estradas intend to stay at the Marco Polo Hotel for the entire duration of the trip.

In a motion filed last week, the former senator said his wife Precy and their four children “have been longing for bonding outside the country.”

Estrada said he had promised his family that if the court permits, “all of them will go on a holiday trip to an Asian country.”

The Sandiganbayan has issued a hold departure order against Estrada for his plunder and graft cases in connection with the alleged misuse of his pork barrel funds when he was a senator.

He is accused of receiving P183 million in kickbacks from alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles in exchange for allocating portions of his Priority Development Assistance Fund from 2004 to 2012 to bogus non-government organizations.

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

Estrada has been detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center at Camp Crame in Quezon City since June 2014. Last September, the Sandiganabayan allowed him to post bail.