ASEAN Beat | Politics | Southeast Asia

Philippine Senator Estrada Surrenders After Anti-graft Court Orders His Arrest

Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada claims that the charges of plunder are a politically motivated outgrowth of the political feud between the Marcos and Duterte clans.

Senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, a member of the pro-Duterte Senate majority who surrendered himself to police on Jun. 1, 2026.

A Philippine senator surrendered to police yesterday after a court ordered his arrest over a charge that he received kickbacks as part of an infrastructure corruption scandal that erupted into large public protests last year.

The anti-graft court Sandiganbayan ordered the arrest of Senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada for plunder, a non-bailable offense under Philippine law. This came after the Office of the Ombudsman last week charged Estrada with violating anti-corruption laws for taking “kickbacks” amounting to 573 million pesos ($9.3 million) in connection with government-funded flood control projects.

Estrada also faces two counts of graft related to the scandal, for which he posted bail after an arrest warrant was issued on May 29. A charge of plunder can only be pursued if the amount of misappropriated funds in question total at least 50 million pesos ($808,000).

Estrada has denied the allegations, which are based on the testimony of a former government public works engineer, but said that he would surrender to police rather than seek the protective custody of the Senate, Rappler reported.

“I will defend myself till the end,” Estrada told a press conference yesterday. “I am ready to defend myself before the court and I will not hide behind the institution to evade the process,” he added.

Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano then accompanied Estrada to the Philippine National Police headquarters at Camp Crame, where police took his mugshot and fingerprints.

Estrada, 63, is the son of former President Joseph Estrada, who was impeached in late 2000 and was subsequently forced to resign amid mass protests early the following year. Estrada served as a senator between 2004 and 2016, before being re-elected to the upper chamber in 2022. According to Rappler, this is the third time that Estrada has been accused of plunder, although he was acquitted on both previous cases.

With his arrest, Estrada becomes the seniormost official to be detained during the course of the flood control scandal, which erupted last year after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. blamed corruption for weeks of severe flooding and promised to investigate the issue thoroughly.

An internal government audit later revealed that “thousands” of flood control projects “were either substandard, poorly documented, or non-existent,” prompting a series of massive anti-corruption protests in Manila and other cities. Several government officials, politicians, and owners of construction firms have been accused of taking kickbacks from the projects, but this is the first time a sitting lawmaker has been arrested in connection with the scandal.

However, Estrada claimed yesterday that his arrest was part of the complicated and extremely bitter political feud that has raged between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and the family of former President Rodrigo Duterte over the past two years.

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