THE Supreme Court (SC) yesterday affirmed the Sandiganbayan’s grant of bail to Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, a coaccused in the plunder case filed against his father, former-President Joseph Estrada before the antigraft court’s First Division.

In an 18-page decision penned by Associate Justice Cancio C. Garcia, the Court en banc in a unanimous decision junked the petition for certiorari filed by the government, seeking to reverse and set aside the Sandiganbayan resolution on March 6, 2003 and May 30, 2003 which granted bail to Senator Estrada.

“The likelihood of escape on the part of individual respondent is now almost nil, given his election on May 10, 2004, as senator of the Republic of the Philippines…The Court, to be sure, cannot accept any suggestion that someone who has a popular mandate to serve as senator is harboring any plan to give up his Senate seat in exchange for becoming a fugitive from justice,” the ruling stated.

The SC did not give credence to the prosecution’s claim that the Sandiganbayan committed grave abuse of discretion in granting bail to the senator, considering the well-established theory of overlapping conspiracies.

The government explained that since the central figure in the overlapping conspiracies, that is President Estrada, is charged with a capital offense, all those within the conspiracy loop would be considered charged with the same kind of nonbailable offense.

The prosecution said the antigraft court failed to recognize that the conduct of Senator Estrada pointed to a concurrence of sentiment or criminal design, indicating the existence of a conspiracy between him and his father.

Besides this, the government insisted that it is undisputed that the senator is equally guilty and liable as the former President by his indispensable cooperation or direct participation in the commission of the crime of plunder.

In junking the arguments of the government, the Court noted that the Sandiganbayan is still in the process of determining the facts and merits of the main case.

Thus, revoking the petitioner’s bail will imply that the evidence of his guilt is strong and thus preempt the antigraft court’s ongoing determination of the facts and merits of the main case.

Concurring were Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno, Senior Associate Justice Leonardo A. Quisumbing, Justices Consuelo Ynares-Santiago, Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez, Antonio T. Carpio, Ma. Alicia Austria-Martinez, Renato C. Corona, Conchita Carpio- Morales, Adolfo S. Azcuna, Dante O. Tinga, Presbitero J. Velasco Jr., and Antonio Eduardo B. Nachura.  Justices Minita V. Chico-Nazario and Ruben T. Reyes did not take part in the deliberations.

The Court noted that the antigraft court did not commit grave abuse of discretion in issuing the assailed resolutions “because the grant of bail therein is predicated only on its preliminary appreciation of the evidence adduced in the bail hearing to determine whether or not deprivation of the right to bail is warranted.

“In all, the Court rules that public respondent Sandiganbayan [Special Division] did not commit grave abuse of discretion when, after conducting numerous bail hearings and evaluating the weight of the prosecution’s evidence, it determined that the evidence against individual respondent was not strong and, on the basis of that determination, resolved to grant him bail,” the Court said.

Senator Estrada has been charged with conspiring with his father in acquisition of ill-gotten wealth from jueteng; in the division of the tobacco excise tax and in receiving commission and kickbacks from the purchase by the Social Security System (SSS) and Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) of Belle Corp. shares and other illegal sources.

The government accused them of amassing ill-gotten wealth of more than P4 billion.

AS another typhoon, the third to hit the country in a span of one week, moves in, heavy rains brought by the southwest monsoon flooded parts of Metro Manila, causing heavy traffic on major thoroughfares, including Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (Edsa), the metropolis’s main thoroughfare.

THE Armed Forces denied on Wednesday reports that US troops have been directly involved in combat operations against terrorists and bandits in the province of Sulu.

THE Supreme Court (SC) yesterday affirmed the Sandiganbayan’s grant of bail to Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, a coaccused in the plunder case filed against his father, former-President Joseph Estrada before the antigraft court’s First Division.

NATIONAL Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales agrees with the observation that the antiterrorism law, more commonly known as the Human Security Act (HSA), is unenforceable.

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—The flood-stricken province of Pampanga was declared to be under a state of calamity by its Sangguniang Panlalawigan on Monday after floods spawned by heavy downpours from two tropical storms wreaked havoc in the province last week.

SAYING that a piece of legislation could not, on its own, lower the prices of medicine, a militant legislator on Wednesday proposed a five-point legislative agenda that included the breaking up of the monopoly of large pharmaceutical companies by amending the Intellectual Property Code.

A PUZZLED Sen. Loren Legarda asked the Arroyo administration on Wednesday to clarify conflicting claims on the perceived economic gains being touted by its officials that the country would get from ratifying the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (Jpepa).