Prosecutors filed criminal charges against a senator allegedly involved in a massive corruption scandal over bogus flood control projects.
The charges came almost a year after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr put the so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects, believed to have cost Filipino taxpayers billions of dollars, centre stage during a July speech.
Several construction firm owners, government officials and politicians have been accused of pocketing funds from the projects, but this is the first time a criminal case has been filed against a sitting lawmaker over the scandal.
Yesterday, assistant ombudsman Mico Clavano said the charges against Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada (pic), a senator and son of former Philippine president Joseph Estrada, stemmed from “an intricate mechanism involving illegal budgetary insertions and project allocations” for fiscal year 2025 that allowed him to amass a kickback of over 573 million pesos or US$9.2mil.
The charges include graft and plunder, a non-bailable offence referring to massive corruption punishable by life imprisonment.
Estrada’s co-respondents include former Department of Public Works and Highways secretary Manuel Bonoan, as well as local engineering officials.
“Our case is built on solid, immovable evidence,” Clavano told reporters, adding that arrest warrants will be issued once the court finds probable cause.
“The Office of the Ombudsman is determined to pursue all cases still pending. We have one shot to get these cases right. The Filipino people need to see justice.”
Estrada did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.
When asked by reporters on Tuesday about the impending charges, he said: “Well, if this is the price that I have to pay for standing on my own principles and what I believe in? So be it.”
On Tuesday, Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla said around eight more senators were being investigated and that three of them could also face charges. He did not provide their names.
Remulla said the president’s congressman cousin Martin Romualdez, who resigned as a House Speaker in September after being implicated in the scandal, is also being investigated.
Last year, former congressman Elizaldy Co, public works officials and members of a construction firm were charged in connection to the scheme.
Yesterday’s charges were filed before the Sandiganbayan, which are special Philippine courts that tackle high-profile corruption charges. They also investigated the ill-gotten wealth of the late president Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
Corruption has long been a problem in the Philippines’ brand of free-wheeling democracy, and accounts for much of the massive poverty in the South-East Asian nation of 112 million people.
Estrada was charged in 2014 with plundering millions of dollars meant for government development projects, but the court acquitted him a decade later. — AFP/Reuters
