Senator Jose “Jinggoy” P. Ejercito Estrada on Monday, June 1, asked the Sandiganbayan to dismiss the graft and plunder charges filed against him by the Office of the Ombudsman (OMB) in connection with alleged illegal budget insertions and kickbacks tied to Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) infrastructure projects.

Through an Urgent Omnibus Motion Ad Cautelam, Estrada said his legal team asked the anti-graft court to quash the informations and dismiss the cases against him.

“Today, my legal team filed a third pleading – an Urgent Omnibus Motion Ad Cautelam – praying that the information be quashed; the case be dismissed with prejudice, or, in the alternative, that the proceedings be suspended and the case remanded for reinvestigation and/or the completion of the preliminary investigation,” he said in a statement sent to reporters covering the Sandiganbayan.

“These are not mere technicalities. I firmly believe that I am entitled to avail myself of the remedies available under the law, including the filing of a motion for reconsideration, especially considering that I received a copy of the Ombudsman Resolution on the plunder case only on Friday evening,” he added.

Estrada also urged the Sandiganbayan to first act on the motions already filed by his legal team before issuing any arrest warrant in the plunder case.

“In anticipation of the possible issuance of an arrest warrant in the plunder case filed against me, I respectfully urge the Court to first give due consideration to the motions I have already filed and to uphold the principles of due process,” he said.

According to Estrada, his lawyers had already filed pleadings before the anti-graft court seeking the consolidation of the cases and the deferment of the issuance of any arrest warrant.

“Simultaneous with my posting of bail on the graft charges last Friday, my lawyers immediately filed pleadings before the Sandiganbayan seeking the consolidation of the cases and the deferment of the issuance of any arrest warrant,” he said.

Estrada maintained that it is “only fair and just” for him to be given the opportunity to fully exercise the legal remedies available to him before any coercive action is taken.

He stressed that the motions were not intended to evade accountability.

“Hindi ito pag-iwas sa pananagutan sa batas, kundi pagtindig sa aking karapatan sa due process at sa pagkakataong maihain at maiparinig ang aking panig sa tamang paraan (This is not an attempt to evade accountability under the law, but a stand for my right to due process and the opportunity to properly present and be heard on my side of the case),” he said.

On May 28, the Office of the Ombudsman filed plunder and graft charges before the Sandiganbayan in connection with alleged illegal budget insertions and the disbursement of more than ₱573 million in purported kickbacks involving DPWH infrastructure projects funded under the Fiscal Year 2025 budget.

The Sandiganbayan’s Second Division on May 29 issued arrest warrants against Estrada and former Public Works Secretary Manuel Bonoan over one of the graft cases pending before the anti-graft court. Both subsequently posted bail on the same day.

Apart from the graft case pending before the Second Division, Estrada and Bonoan are also facing a separate graft charge assigned to the Sandiganbayan’s Fifth Division. The plunder case against Estrada and his co-respondents was likewise raffled to the same division.