Sandiganbayan allows Senator Jinggoy Estrada to leave detention for knee X-ray

The Sandiganbayan Fifth Division on Monday allowed detained Sen. Jinggoy Estrada to leave detention for up to four hours to undergo an X-ray examination of his knee.

The anti-graft court granted Estrada’s Aug. 18 “Motion for Leave to Undergo Knee X-ray Procedure at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center.”

Under the court’s order, Estrada may leave the New Quezon City Jail on Wednesday, Aug. 26, at 11 a.m. and must return by 3 p.m.

Estrada will shoulder all hospital bills, medical fees, transportation costs and other incidental expenses related to the procedure, the court said.

Estrada’s motion said he had been experiencing joint effusion even before his detention on June 1 and had previously been diagnosed with osteoarthritis.

“Accused Estrada has of late been experiencing a flare up of persistent pain in both knees, making it acutely difficult for him to walk,” the motion said, as quoted in the court resolution.

Prosecutors opposed the request on Aug. 19, proposing that Estrada instead undergo the procedure using a portable X-ray machine or at a mobile X-ray clinic. They also suggested that the examination be conducted at a public hospital.

Estrada is facing a plunder case over an alleged “intricate mechanism involving illegal budgetary insertions and project allocations” in the Department of Public Works and Highways’ infrastructure portfolio for fiscal year 2025.

Prosecutors said the alleged scheme involved projects worth P573 million.