Detained Senator Estrada’s Knee ‘Snaps’ Before Checkup

Detained Senator Jinggoy Estrada suffered a painful injury to his left knee on Wednesday, August 26, while preparing to leave the Quezon City Jail for a scheduled X-ray examination at Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan City.

Estrada’s camp and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) denied reports that the senator slipped and fell inside a comfort room or while taking a bath.

According to BJMP spokesperson Jail Superintendent Jayrex Bustinera, the incident happened at around 11:30 a.m. in the hallway outside Estrada’s cell as he was getting ready for his hospital visit.

“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,” Bustinera said in a phone interview.

Estrada’s office also confirmed that his left knee snapped while he was preparing to leave for Cardinal Santos Medical Center, where he was scheduled to undergo an X-ray.

“He was preparing to go to Cardinal (Santos Medical Center in San Juan City) when his left knee snapped,” his office said.

BJMP personnel, including a jail medical doctor, immediately assisted Estrada following the incident.

“This happened in the hallway just outside his cell because his check-up was supposed to be at 11 a.m.,” Bustinera said. “We only brought him to his check-up at 1 p.m. because his doctor was only available this afternoon.”

“While he was preparing, around 11:30 a.m., he was walking when his left knee snapped. He said he heard something snap in his knee. It snapped and it hurt so much,” he recalled.

“Our BJMP medical doctor was there to assist him,” he added.

Despite the incident, Estrada was later transported to the hospital for the planned procedure.

The Sandiganbayan Fifth Division had earlier granted Estrada permission to temporarily leave detention for up to four hours to undergo a knee X-ray at the private hospital at his own expense.

The anti-graft court approved Estrada’s motion seeking medical leave for the examination, which was scheduled for August 26. As of early Wednesday afternoon, his office said the senator was already on his way to the hospital.

Bustinera said Estrada had a pre-existing knee condition before his admission to the detention facility.

Estrada is currently being held at the New Quezon City Jail while facing a plunder case related to alleged anomalies involving flood control and infrastructure projects.

The Office of the Ombudsman filed the charges against Estrada, alleging that he was involved in an “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 the senator received P573 million in kickbacks through government-funded infrastructure projects linked to the alleged budget insertions.

Estrada was arrested on June 1, 2026, becoming the first high-ranking government official detained in connection with the alleged flood control project anomalies.

He was also placed under a 90-day preventive suspension by the Sandiganbayan Second Division in connection with separate graft complaints.

The senator remains under BJMP custody as the legal proceedings against him continue.