Metro Manila, Philippines – For the third time in less than three decades, Senator Jinggoy Estrada is facing charges of plunder — the criminal offense of amassing ill-gotten wealth through the misuse of government funds, resources, or authority.
On Thursday, May 28, the Office of the Ombudsman filed plunder and graft charges against Estrada in connection with the flood control corruption scandal.
The Ombudsman said its investigation showed that more than ₱573 million in illicit payouts was systematically delivered to the senator — under a scheme in which public funds were funneled into infrastructure projects in exchange for kickbacks.
Estrada has repeatedly denied the allegations.
Estrada, 63, was previously acquitted of plunder in connection with the “jueteng” illegal gambling scandal and the pork barrel scam.
First acquittal
Estrada, then mayor of San Juan City, was first charged with plunder before the Sandiganbayan in 2001 as a co-accused of his father, former President Joseph Ejercito Estrada.
Then Ilocos Sur Governor Luis “Chavit” Singson, the primary witness, said the younger Estrada collected ₱3 million in “jueteng” protection money every month, kept ₱1 million, and gave the rest to Singson, who remitted it to then President Estrada.
In 2007, the elder Estrada was convicted of plunder for amassing nearly ₱4 billion in protection money from jueteng operations and kickbacks from tobacco excise taxes.
The younger Estrada, then serving his first term as senator, was acquitted for lack of evidence.
“With respect to Jinggoy Estrada, there was no evidence that the money he turned over to Gov. Singson or the latter’s representatives was part of the jueteng protection money,” the court ruled.
Second acquittal
In 2013, during his second term as senator, Estrada was again accused of plunder and graft — this time over the alleged misuse of his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), commonly known as pork barrel, the discretionary funds of lawmakers later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
The ombudsman filed plunder charges against Estrada, along with the late former senator Juan Ponce Enrile, and former senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr.
They were accused of funneling portions of their PDAF allocations to bogus nongovernment organizations linked to pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles, who has been detained since 2015.
Specifically, Estrada was accused of receiving ₱183.79 million in kickbacks from his PDAF allocations from 2004 to 2010.
The Sandiganbayan issued a warrant for his arrest in 2014. Estrada surrendered at Camp Crame and was detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center.
He spent three years in detention before he was allowed to post a ₱1.33-million bail.
In January 2024, the Sandiganbayan acquitted him of plunder for lack of reasonable doubt, but convicted him of direct and indirect bribery, which was later reversed. His graft cases remain pending.
Third plunder case
Despite his pending cases, Estrada won a Senate seat in the 2022 elections, placing 12th.
In September 2025, former Department of Public Works and Highways engineer Brice Hernandez first linked Estrada to the flood control corruption scandal, alleging that the senator received 30 percent in kickbacks from flood control projects. Estrada denied the accusation and later sued Hernandez for perjury.
After months of congressional hearings and legal investigations into the massive corruption scheme, the ombudsman on Thursday, May 28, filed plunder and graft charges against Estrada, former DPWH secretary Manny Bonoan, and three local DPWH officials.
“Case records point to an accumulated sum of illicit payouts amounting to an aggregate sum of over ₱573M which were systematically delivered to the principal respondent Senator Jinggoy Estrada,” Assistant Ombudsman Mico Clavano said.
The ombudsman recommended no bail.
While it acknowledged the Senate Legislative Budget Research and Monitoring Office’s certification that Estrada had no insertions in the 2025 budget, the ombudsman said the certification did not capture all stages of the budget process.
Estrada, for his part, said he will exhaust all legal remedies. He cited alleged irregularities in the process, saying he was not given sufficient time to seek reconsideration of the Ombudsman and Department of Justice resolutions and the evidence was not given due weight.
“Ang ganitong labis at hindi makatuwirang proseso ay may seryosong implikasyon sa aking right to due process,” he said.
”Ipagpapatuloy ko ang paghahanap ng katotohanan at ang pagtatanggol sa aking pangalan sa tamang forum at alinsunod sa batas,” he added.
