The Sandiganbayan has deferred anew the trial date of former Senator Jinggoy Estrada even as it allowed him to file a supplemental motion for his earlier motion for the dismissal of his plunder case.
The court set Estrada’s trial on Aug.5.
Estrada is facing charges at the Sandiganbayan for the alleged misuse of the 183 million of his Priority Development Assistance Fund.
The court earlier denied Estrada’s motion for leave of court to file a demurrer to evidence; that if granted will result in his acquittal without him having to file counter-evidence to that filed by the Ombudsman in filing the case.
The Sandiganbayan has ruled that the Ombudsman’s evidence is strong enough to warrant the holding of the full trial of the case involving alleged misuse of his PDAF funds.
In his motion, Estrada said the Ombudsman failed to prove that he allegedly misappropriated his P183-million PDAF, or pork barrel, to the fake non-government organizations of pork barrel mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles.
He said the prosecution had no evidence that he was the mastermind behind the scheme, nor was there proof he acted in conspiracy with Napoles and his former deputy chief of staff Pauline Labayen.
The scheduled hearing on Monday was canceled, where the prosecution was given five days to reply.
State prosecutors had reacted to the initial motion for reconsideration, but were seeking to file another comment because they said they received the supplemental motion from Estrada’s camp only last Thursday.
Estrada was charged with plunder after being accused of receiving kickbacks worth P55.79 million for allocating a portion of his PDAF to bogus non-government organizations handled by co-accused Janet Lim-Napoles.
Last June 13, the anti-graft court denied Estrada’s demurrer to evidence on the grounds that he allegedly approved transferring the PDAF to Napoles’ NGOs.
If the court granted Estrada’s demurrer, legal sources said the plunder case Estrada was facing would have been dismissed.