Estrada withdraws from bicameral panel amid corruption allegations

Senator Jinggoy Estrada has withdrawn his membership from the bicameral conference committee tasked with reconciling the proposed P6.793-trillion national budget for 2026.

Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel "Migz" Zubiri announced Estrada's withdrawal to the Senate plenary on Tuesday, noting that no specific reason was provided for the decision.

Estrada was previously designated as one of the senators to represent the Senate in the bicameral meetings.

This development comes after Estrada was named by Henry Alcantara, a dismissed DPWH district engineer, as one of the senators who allegedly endorsed anomalous flood control projects.

Alcantara claimed that senators acting as "proponents" for these projects, funded through budget insertions in the 2025 GAA, received kickbacks of up to 25% of the project cost, with many projects later found to be substandard or non-existent.