SC denies Jinggoy Estrada’s petition vs AMLC inquiry in plunder case

By Vann Marlo M. Villegas
THE Supreme Court (SC) dismissed a petition by Sen. Jose “Jinggoy” E. Estrada to prohibit the Sandiganbayan resolution including in his plunder case a report by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) on his alleged involvement in the 2013 pork-barrel scam.
In a statement last Saturday, the SC cited a previous decision affirming an ex parte application for a bank inquiry by the AMLC. The high court also said Mr. Estrada’s bail as granted by the Sandiganbayan renders his petition “moot and academic.”
“Considering that the resolutions assailed trace their roots to the bail hearing of Estrada, the aforementioned conclusions of the Sandiganbayan relevant to his bail application, and the eventual grant of bail to him have rendered his petition for certiorari, prohibition and mandamus moot and academic,” the Court said.
“There is no question that whenever the issues have become moot and academic, there ceases to be any justiciable controversy, such that the resolution of the issues no longer have any practical value. In effect, the Court can no longer grant substantial relief to which the petitioner may be entitled. Hence, the Court should abstain from expressing its opinion in a case where no legal relief is needed or called for,” it added.
In his petition, Mr. Estrada and his wife, Ma. Presentacion Vitug Ejercito, claimed that the filing of an ex parte application to inquire into bank transactions violates his rights to due process and to privacy.
The SC also upheld that AMLC’s inquiry into bank accounts are not “undertaken whimsically” based on its investigative discretion, as the AMLC and the Court of Appeals are required to determine the existence of probable cause before the issuance of any bank inquiry order.
The SC said the ALMC found that Mr. Estrada had transferred “substantial sums of money to the account of his wife on the dates relevant to the Pork Barrel Scam.”
Due to the lack of apparent “legal or economic justifications,” the AMLC concluded that the accounts could be linked to plunder which led the councilto file an ex parte application for inquiry into Mr. Estrada’s bank accounts.
Mr. Estrada was charged with plunder in 2013, in connection with the alleged misuse or diversion of his Priority Development Assistance Fund in connivance with alleged pork-barrel mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles. He was arrested in 2014 and detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center.
In 2017, he was granted bail worth P1.33 million by the Sandiganbayan special fifth division.
In July, the SC upheld the Office of the Ombudsman’s findings of probable cause against Mr. Estrada for his alleged involvement in the pork-barrel scam.