Comelec: Without final conviction, Estrada can still run in 2028

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Jinggoy Estrada may still run for public office in the 2028 elections until there is no final conviction on the plunder case he is facing, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said on Tuesday.

Estrada, who was elected in 2022, will finish his six-year term as a senator in 2028.

This is what Comelec chair George Erwin Garcia said when asked if Estrada can still run for office after the senator was arrested on Monday over a plunder case filed against him. The case is in connection with his allegedly receiving up to P573 million in kickbacks from certain flood control project allocations in 2025.

He was then admitted to the New Quezon City Jail in Payatas, Quezon City, after being arrested by the Philippine National Police.

READ: Estrada yields as court warrant on plunder court

“Unless there is no final conviction on the case he is facing or anyone for that matter, Comelec will accept their certificates of candidacy,” Garcia told reporters in an interview.

“If there is no final decision and no restraining order from the high court furnished to the Commission on Elections, the name will be included in the list,” Garcia added.

READ: Estrada asks Sandiganbayan: No BJMP uniform, handcuffs during trial

Garcia noted that this also applies to anyone who is facing a case, and is not yet convicted by a final judgment involving a crime of moral turpitude or a crime punishable by more than a year. Plunder, which is non-bailable, is punishable by lifetime imprisonment.

“Even if they are convicted by the municipal trial court, regional trial court, and even if they appeal the decision, they can still run in the elections. Because in our country, the Constitution has a provision that everybody is presumed innocent until the contrary is proved,” he noted. /cb