Senate President Vicente ‘Tito’ Sotto III said on December 6 that Senator Jinggoy Estrada is not required to ask for a travel authority from his office when traveling abroad for personal reasons.
In his DWIZ interview, Sotto stressed that he had not received any request or note asking him to bar Estrada from leaving the country.
“No, I haven’t received anything. If my office has received anything, I haven’t been told yet,” Sotto said.
He emphasized that the Senate president cannot be asked to restrict Estrada’s movements in this situation.
“Secondly, it’s not me,” he said. “You can’t ask the Senate president for that in the situation of Senator Estrada.”
Sotto explained that Senate Policy Order No. 2016-003 clearly states that only official travels require his approval, while personal trips do not.
“When a senator leaves the country and is on a personal trip, at his own expense, he does not need to inform the Senate president. He does not need a travel authority,” Sotto added.
He further said Estrada’s past travels were always cleared by the Sandiganbayan, not the Senate.
“If the Ombudsman wants something like that, he should write to the Sandiganbayan, because the Sandiganbayan is informing Sen. Estrada, not me,” Sotto noted.
Sotto added that Estrada has no pending request for official travel before his office.
“He doesn’t have anything like that pending against me,” he said.
When asked what would happen if Estrada had already left the country before a new case filed, Sotto replied that the senator has consistently returned despite charges, “Then he’ll come back,” Sotto said. “He always comes back even if there’s a case.”
Estrada is among the respondents in the Independent Commission for Infrastructure’s (ICI) recommendation to file plunder and other charges over alleged kickbacks in infrastructure projects, but he has denied the accusations.
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