DETAINED Senator Jinggoy Estrada was preparing to go to the hospital on Wednesday morning, August 26, 2026, when his knee “snapped.”
The senator’s camp denied reports that Estrada slipped and fell inside a comfort room.
The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) also dismissed rumors that Estrada slipped and fell while taking a bath.
“Let me just refute it. First, he didn't slip in the bathroom or whatever… While he was getting ready this morning, around 11:30 a.m., while walking, something snapped. He said he felt a click in his knee. Something snapped and it hurt a lot,” BJMP spokesperson Jail Superintendent Jayrex Bustinera said in a phone interview.
He also clarified that the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division earlier issued an order allowing Estrada to leave the New Quezon City Jail on August 26 to have a knee x-ray at the private hospital at his own expense.
Bustinera said Estrada had a pre-existing knee injury even before he was admitted to the detention facility.
Estrada was arrested on June 1, 2026 over plunder charges filed by the Office of the Ombudsman over the alleged “intricate mechanism, illegal budgetary insertions, and project allocations within the Department of Public Works and Highways infrastructure portfolio for fiscal year 2025.”
Prosecutors alleged that Estrada received P573 million in kickbacks by funneling government funds into selected infrastructure projects through budget insertions.
Estrada is the first high-ranking government official to be detained in connection with alleged anomalies involving flood control projects.
The Sandiganbayan Second Division, which is handling the graft complaints against Estrada, issued a 90-day preventive suspension against the senator on June 16, 2026. (TPM/SunStar Philippines)