Jinggoy hopeful of bribery reversal

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Jinggoy Estrada is “keeping his fingers crossed” that he would be able to reverse the Sandiganbayan’s conviction of him for bribery over the pork barrel scam.

In a dwIZ interview yesterday, Estrada said he still saw the anti-graft court’s Fifth Division ruling a “legal victory” because he was acquitted of the main charge of plunder.

“I think there’s still reason to celebrate despite the fact of my conviction of bribery. What’s most important to me is the main plunder case,” he said. “I’m just going to keep my fingers crossed.”

Estrada will file a motion for reconsideration or go all the way to the Supreme Court to appeal his conviction for bribery, which he said was not mentioned in the charge sheet filed in court.

“We cannot be confident. We want to make sure the motion for reconsideration will have no loopholes so that it could be granted by the Sandiganbayan,” he said.

The senator denied he benefited from the misuse of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel during his previous stint as senator.

“Maybe I was careless in the old days. But one thing is for sure, I did not steal people’s money,” Estrada said.

He said the decision – which could see him perpetually disqualified from public office and unseat him from the Senate – is not yet final and executory.

Estrada vowed to continue serving his duties as a senator who garnered over 15 million votes in the last elections.

“I will continue working with the mandate given to me by the people,” he said in Filipino.

While he was acquitted of plunder, Estrada was found guilty of receiving bribe money from accused pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles, and alleged middleman Ruby Tuason, in exchange for endorsing Napoles’ bogus foundations to implement his pork projects.

It was Estrada’s former deputy chief-of-staff, Pauline Labayen, who “primarily benefitted” from his PDAF when she took advantage of her connection with the senator to “casually” drop his name whenever she transacted with Napoles, the Sandiganbayan said.

In its nearly 400-page decision released on Friday, the anti-graft court said based on evidence, it was “made clear” Labayen actively participated in the “grandiose scheme” of funneling PDAF from Estrada’s office to the bogus non-government organizations of Napoles, making them the co-conspirators in the case and not Estrada and Napoles. — Neil Jayson Servallos