A Philippine senator said he will surrender to authorities after a special anti-corruption court ordered his arrest on Monday on a non-bailable charge of plunder after he allegedly pocketed a huge kickback in a flood-control project in the latest crisis to hit the upper chamber.
The special Sandiganbayan anti-corruption court had initially issued a warrant for Senator Jinggoy Estrada’s arrest on Friday on a corruption charge that was bailable. He then surrendered and was released on bail and again denied any wrongdoing.
Estrada, 63, has strongly denied allegations mainly by a former government public works engineer that he received more than 570 million pesos (US$9.3 million) in kickbacks from flood control projects.
Before leaving the Senate to surrender, Estrada suggested that the corruption cases he was facing and his arrest were a result of his being aligned with the camp of former president Rodrigo Duterte and his daughter, incumbent Vice-President Sara Duterte, a former ally but now an arch-political rival of President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr.
“I will not yield to threats. I will not be intimidated,” Estrada said at the Senate.
“I will not be pressured into surrendering my independence of judgment,” he said.
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