By Lane Afable, News Editor
THE Office of the Ombudsman said on Tuesday it will file a flood control-related plunder case before the Sandiganbayan against Sen. Jinggoy Estrada.
Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla described the case to be “very ripe,” and said they could file the charges by Thursday.
The Office of the Ombudsman confirmed that it had received a Department of Justice resolution recommending the filing of plunder, graft, and bribery charges against Estrada and several other officials over alleged irregularities in infrastructure projects.
In the same briefing, Remulla said his office can soon file a separate plunder case against Sen. Joel Villanueva, though he did not give any particulars.
Villanueva had been linked to the flood control bribery scandal, but has denied the allegations against him as “ridiculous.”
“It is not just Senator Jinggoy. We are finishing another one, and we can file it really soon, the one against Sen. Joel Villanueva.
That is another one that is ripe, but we need to thoroughly refine how all the information and evidence included are laid out,” Remulla said in Filipino and English.
Estrada said he was clueless whether the planned move of the Ombudsman to file plunder charges against him was a form of harassment against some members of the Senate majority bloc.
“No comment,” the senator said on Tuesday, adding that he would consult his lawyers about the matter.
“If this is the price that I have to pay for standing on my own principles and what I believe in. So be it,” Estrada said in a chance interview.
Asked whether politics was behind the filing of charges against him and other members of the Senate majority bloc, he said, “Your guess is as good as mine. I will still perform my duties.”
“What I know is that the LBRMO (Legislative Budget Research and Monitoring Office) has said that I have no insertion contrary to what Bryce Hernandez divulged in the House [investigation on flood control budget scandal],” Estrada said in Filipino.
