MANILA — Sen. Jinggoy Estrada’s chief of staff said Tuesday the office he previously occupied was turned over bare to Senate President Pro Tempore Vicente Sotto III as part of “standard practice”.
Estrada’s camp said its chief of staff informed Sotto ahead of the Oct. 5, 2026 deadline to vacate the office that its fixtures, furnishings, and materials would be brought to Estrada’s new office.
It said most of these items, such as floor tiles, glass panels, lighting fixtures, cabinets, and others, were acquired using personal funds, as the budget provided by the Senate was insufficient to cover all the expenses incurred.
“It bears noting that standard practice in the Senate is for the senator occupying an office to renovate the space based on the budget provided, with any expense beyond that shouldered entirely by the occupant. Let it be stressed, in no uncertain terms, that not a single centavo of public funds was wasted,” Estrada’s office said.
It also noted that when the vacated office was first turned over to Estrada in 2022 it was “likewise bare, following this same long-standing practice.”
“Standard practice ito sa Senado at hindi na dapat ikagulat pa o gawin pang isyu,” his office said.
“It must also be emphasized that similar instances of dismantling fixtures and materials from a vacated senator's office have occurred in the recent past. This is neither new nor unusual — it is an established and accepted practice within the institution, and singling out this particular transition for scrutiny is both unfair and misleading.”
They added that in the past four years Estrada “had only been occupying space on the 6th floor and had merely been allotted an extension office on the 5th floor — unlike the rest of the senators, each of whom was given a full office space on the 5th floor.”
“We trust that this clarifies the matter and respectfully appeal that this routine administrative transition not be unnecessarily politicized, sensationalized, or made into a manufactured controversy where none exists,” Estrada’s office said.
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