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Daphne Galvez - The Philippine Star
June 17, 2026 | 12:00am
Sen.Jinggoy Estrada leaves the Sandiganbayan in Quezon City after attending his scheduled arraignment on the graft case filed against him at the Sandiganbayan in Quezon City on June 2, 2026.
STAR / Miguel de Guzman
MANILA, Philippines — The Sandiganbayan Second Division has imposed a 90-day preventive suspension against detained Sen. Jinggoy Estrada in connection with his flood control graft case.
The Second Division, chaired by Presiding Justice Geraldine Faith Econg, is handling one of two graft cases filed against the senator, who is currently detained at the New Quezon City Jail in Payatas.
In his comment, Estrada argued that he should not be preventively suspended because he has yet to be granted the full opportunity to question the regularity of the preliminary investigation conducted by the Office of the Ombudsman and the Department of Justice, adding that preventively suspending him without sufficient justification will serve as a “penalty without due process of law.”
The prosecution, in a separate comment, said the imposition of preventive suspension is mandated under Republic Act 3019 when a case has been filed against an accused.
It also argued that Estrada was already given the full opportunity to question the validity of the case against him during a June 4 hearing, which also served as a pre-suspension hearing.
In its seven-page resolution, the anti-graft court said the hearing on June 4 was set by the court to resolve the motion of Estrada that questioned the case against him and sought for it to be dismissed.
During the hearing, the court said Estrada and the prosecution were allowed to present their arguments orally.
Estrada, through his counsel, even submitted a written plea that enabled him to “exhaustively” present his defense, the Sandiganbayan division said.
“All of these were duly considered by the Court before it ruled on the validity of the Information. Moreover, after arraignment, accused Senator Estrada was given a non-extendible period of 10 days to show cause why he should not be preventively suspended,” the resolution read.
The court also said that even though Estrada is already detained, this does not affect the mandatory nature of a preventive suspension, as the presumption under the law is that an accused may frustrate his prosecution or commit further acts of malfeasance or both unless he is suspended.
Since Estrada has been ordered suspended, he is barred from doing his work as a senator.
