Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson suggested on Friday, July 11, that the anti-graft court’s refusal to temporarily release detained Senator Jinggoy Estrada for the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte may have saved the chamber from seeming to overstep its bounds.
The Sandiganbayan’s Fifth Division dismissed Estrada’s plea for lack of merit. Estrada, who is serving a 90-day suspension over graft and plunder charges related to an alleged flood control scam, had asserted that his constitutional obligation to sit as a senator-judge justified a temporary release.
The situation stemmed from an earlier manifestation by Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano, who pressed the impeachment court to formally petition the Sandiganbayan to allow both Estrada and Senator Rodante Marcoleta—who is likewise facing plunder and graft charges—to join the high-stakes proceedings.
Addressing the judiciary’s rejection, Lacson pointed out that the decision inadvertently resolved a delicate procedural dilemma for the chamber.
“That would spare the Impeachment Court from acting on the pending motion of Senator-Judge Alan Cayetano for us to ‘ask the Sandiganbayan to allow Senators Estrada (and Marcoleta) to participate in the impeachment trial’, which may impliedly suggest that we are interfering with an ongoing judicial process,” Lacson remarked.
Nevertheless, Lacson clarified that the upper house has yet to reach a collective consensus on the matter.
“I believe we still have to discuss the matter among ourselves as it is just my humble opinion,” he added.
While Presiding Officer Francis “Chiz” Escudero previously stated that 16 votes are required to secure a conviction, the voting status of the two embattled lawmakers remains up in the air.
Estrada is currently detained at the New Quezon City Jail in Payatas, while Marcoleta is confined under police custody at the PNP General Hospital following his recent arrest.