The Supreme Court has been asked to stop the Sandiganbayan from accepting as evidence against detained Senator Jinggoy Estrada the disbursement report of JLN Corporation and the testimony on the document by pork barrel scam whistleblower Benhur Luy.
In a 27-page petition, Estrada also sought the issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) to prevent the anti-graft court from violating his right against unreasonable searches and seizure.
Estrada is being tried for graft and plunder involving P183.7 million before the Sandiganbayan over the alleged anomalous disbursement of his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).
He assailed the October 31, 2014 and December 1, 2014 resolutions of the Sandiganbayan’s Fifth Division which junked his appeal for exclusion as evidence the JLN Corporation Cash/Check Disbursement Reports and the testimony of Luy on the documents.
The documents, contained in an external hard drive that was turned over to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), and Luy’s testimony on the documents, were offered by the Office of the Ombudsman as evidence to counter Estrada’s petition for bail.
“Senator Estrada invokes the commitment of the Constitution against unlimited arbitrary State power, as well as against any act in violation of the Bill of Rights. And so, Sen. Estrada comes before this Honorable Supreme Court seeking its protection, this time from the actions of the Honorable Sandiganbayan in violation of his Constitutional right against unreasonable searches and seizure, and made without or in excess of jurisdiction or with grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction,” Estrada said, in his petition.
“As an employee of JLN Corporation, Mr. Luy does not own purported Disbursement Reports even if he supposedly encoded such electronic files, as intellectual property produced by an employee contemplated by such contract of employment belongs to the employer and not to the employee.”