MANILA, Philippines - The Sandiganbayan’s Fifth Division yesterday set former senator Jinggoy Estrada’s trial for 11 counts of graft in September, more than three years after they were filed by the Office of the Ombudsman.
Estrada was charged in connection with the alleged misuse of P231.6 million of his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel from 2008 to 2010.
In a short hearing yesterday morning, the Fifth Division formally terminated the pre-trial of the cases, after the prosecution and the defense informed the court that they finally completed the marking of their documentary exhibits.
The court set the start of the trial on Sept. 4 and every other Monday hereafter.
Named as his co-accused were alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles and several former officials of the Department of Budget and Management, state firms National Agri-business Corp., Technology Resource Center and National Livelihood Development Corp.