Arraignment of Estrada, Bonoan moved to July 28

MANILA, Philippines — The arraignment of Sen. Jinggoy Estrada and former Public Works secretary Manuel Bonoan for their graft and plunder cases before the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division has been postponed to July 28, a source said on Tuesday.

This comes after state prosecutors filed before the antigraft court division a motion to amend case information to drop Bonoan from the case, according to the source.

Bonoan and Estrada were supposed to be arraigned this Tuesday, June 30. Arraignment marks the formal start of the criminal trial proceedings, requiring the accused to appear in court where the charges against him will be read before being asked tob enter a guilty or not guilty plea.

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On Monday, Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla said Bonoan already agreed to be a state witness.

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“The knowledge that he has about the whole institution is something very important to us to be able to prove many cases,” Remulla said in a press conference.

Previously, Assistant Ombudsman Mico Clavano said their plunder case stemmed from “intricate mechanism involving illegal budgetary insertions and project allocations” within the DPWH infrastructure portfolio for fiscal year 2025 worth P573 million.

State prosecutors later said of this amount, P350 million was for Metro Manila and Oriental Mindoro while P213 million was for Bulacan.

Clavano said the P573 million worth of alleged kickbacks was “systematically delivered” to Sen. Estrada.

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