ENRILE, 2 OTHERS ACQUITTED OF PLUNDER IN PORK BARREL SCAM

After a decade, the trial for plunder of presidential legal adviser Juan Ponce Enrile, Reyes and Lim Napoles by the Sandiganbayan ended in their acquittal (Photo courtesy of ABS-CBN News)

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile and his co-accused Gigi Reyes and Janet Napoles was acquitted by the Sandiganbayan in a plunder case connected with the pork barrel scam after more than 10 years of trial.

The prosecution submitted insufficient evidence and failed to show that the kickbacks he allegedly received from his pork barrel when he was a senator reached the minimum P50-million threshold for the crime, so it threw out the P172.8-million plunder case against Enrile.

"I knew all along that I will be acquitted because we have not done anything in this case. And I hope the people who filed those cases against us will examine their conscience," Enrile stated.

The court ruled that the prosecution failed to establish that Enrile received some of the money that was amassed from his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) for 2006, 2007 and 2010, noting that his letter request to the Senate president or the Senate Committee on Finance was a "regular process" that is being issued by the senators for use as financial assistance to a certain local government unit.

The court also ruled that the threshold amount for plunder was not proven, since the sum of the daily disbursement reports (DDRs), or the list of people who received the money, amounted only to P46.3 million.

However, businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles will remain in jail due to at least two plunder convictions also in connection with the pork barrel scam. She cannot be solely convicted of plunder as the Plunder Law requires that the main plunderer or plunderers are public officials. The court said a private individual can only be held guilty of plunder if proven that he or she conspired with the public official in the commission of the crime.

“Since the prosecution was unable to prove the receipt of money as alleged in the case Information by herein public officers Enrile and Reyes the alleged main plunderers, then Napoles could not be found liable for the offense charged since the basis of her indictment was conspiracy with the said public officers,” the court said.

While Jessica Lucila Reyes should be sentenced to a minimum of eight years to a maximum of nine years and four months of imprisonment for each count of the offense while Napoles should be sentenced to eight years to 10 years of imprisonment for each count of her offense.

Enrile's daughter, Chief Executive Officer Katrina Ponce Enrile of the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority, said they are thankful that the ordeal is over and that justice was served. “We are all relieved that this ordeal that started in 2013 with a politically motivated charge is finally over and that justice was served. We thank the Lord for looking over us.''

Source: GMA Integrated News 

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