Enrile, Reyes, Napoles cleared in ‘pork’ case
The Sandiganbayan on Friday acquitted former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile of 15 graft charges in connection with the alleged diversion of P172.8 million of his pork barrel funds, clearing all criminal complaints against the 101-year-old presidential legal counsel.
The antigraft court’s Special Third Division also acquitted Enrile’s former chief of staff, Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Reyes, and businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles, who is serving time for a separate plunder conviction as mastermind of the P10-billion scam involving lawmakers’ Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).
In its 193-page decision, the three-member division ruled that there was “clear lack of evidence” showing that Enrile had received any form of kickbacks or commissions for endorsing the nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) linked to Napoles for projects using his PDAF from 2004 to 2010.
Under the scheme, PDAF allocations for senators and congressmen were funneled into a network of bogus NGOs run by Napoles in exchange for kickbacks.
The court noted that one of the prosecution’s witnesses, Ruby Tuason, could not substantiate the allegation that Enrile received kickbacks from Napoles for his PDAF.
The antigraft court also noticed inconsistencies between the statements of Tuason and whistleblower Benhur Luy regarding the alleged kickbacks received by Enrile and Reyes.
“Tuason claimed that the commission from the PDAF transactions was released in three tranches, whereas Luy stated that there were only two,” the court said in a ruling by Associate Justices Ronald Moreno, the division chair, Arthur Malabaguio and Juliet Manalo-San Gaspar.
“These discrepancies cast doubt on the reliability of accounts regarding the alleged receipt of kickbacks,” the court said, adding that Luy admitted that he never met Enrile, never saw him visit Napoles’ office, nor witnessed the former senator’s supposed agents delivering kickbacks to him.
Tuason, a former Malacañang social secretary during the Estrada administration, supposedly gave the kickbacks to Reyes for Enrile.
Luy is a cousin of Napoles who served as a finance officer for the latter’s company, JLN Corp.
The Sandiganbayan said that the prosecution failed to establish that Enrile’s endorsement of the NGOs was “made with evident bad faith or manifest partiality, or that he demanded or received kickbacks or commissions from his PDAF in exchange for his endorsement of the NGOs.”
Enrile and Napoles, who is an inmate at the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City, both attended the promulgation remotely.
Enrile appeared briefly via Zoom during the reading of the decision, looking frail on a hospital bed with a tube inserted in his nose. Court officers ordered photographers not to take pictures of him on a TV screen.
Reyes was present in court during Friday’s promulgation hearing. When asked for her reaction to the antigraft court’s decision, she said she was “thankful” and “grateful.”
The court pointed out that the complaints against Enrile and the others specifically alleged that they received kickbacks from portions of Enrile’s pork barrel funds, but the evidence was not enough to convict.
“Overall, the court finds that the evidence for the prosecution does not pass the test of moral certainty and is insufficient to rebut the constitutional presumption of innocence,” the Sandiganbayan said.
The court explained that conviction of the accused—in any case—must not rest on the weakness of the defense, but on the strength of the prosecution.
“The burden is on the prosecution to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt, not on the accused to prove his or her innocence,” the court said. “With the prosecution having failed to discharge its burden establishing the accused’s guilt beyond reasonable doubt, the court is constrained, as is its bounden duty when reasonable doubt persists, to acquit them.”
All 35 acquitted
In all, Enrile and 34 coaccused, including Reyes and Napoles, were acquitted. Four other accused were dismissed from the cases due to their deaths and one for lack of probable cause. Nine others had not been arraigned and are at large.
Excepting Enrile, Reyes and more than a dozen others, the Sandiganbayan ordered Napoles and about six other coaccused, to jointly pay the government a total of P338 million in amounts ranging from P8 million to P40 million for each of the 15 counts of graft.
The Sandiganbayan explained that acquitted persons could still be held civilly liable if sufficient evidence showed they caused damage to the government.
“A person acquitted of a criminal charge is not necessarily civilly free because the quantum of proof required in criminal prosecution (proof beyond reasonable doubt) is greater than that required for civil liability (mere preponderance of evidence),” it said.
The Sandiganbayan said the funds lost from PDAF were “actual damages suffered by the government.”
The court pointed out that Napoles and the other individuals who were made to pay had facilitated the release of the PDAF funds.
In the case of Napoles, the court said the “preponderance of evidence” that she “owned and controlled the NGOs that received public funds.”
The Sandiganbayan ruling was criticized by the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPeg), which said that the acquittal only underscored the “entrenched culture of impunity and nonaccountability among the country’s political elite.”
“This development comes amid growing public outrage over the ongoing flood control corruption scandal, where billions of pesos in public funds were allegedly diverted from infrastructure projects intended to protect lives and communities,” said the public policy advocacy group.
“Taken together, these events reveal a justice system that continues to favor the powerful while the ordinary Filipino bears the brunt of corruption, poverty and recurring disasters,” it also said.
Former Justice Secretary and currently Mamamayang Liberal Rep. Leila de Lima also lambasted the decision by the Sandiganbayan, noting how this could be frustrating for the Department of Justice and the Office of the Ombudsman after they built up the case years ago.
De Lima, who was the justice chief at the time, said the pieces of evidence they collected were “strong enough” that even the bail requests of Enrile and Reyes were denied by the court.
‘Public’s short memory’
“The problem is the slow wheels of justice, with the accused relying on the public’s short memory to eventually be absolved because of less scrutiny over their cases over years of trial,” De Lima said.
“But then, some people are just really luckier than others,” De Lima noted. “Faith in our justice system is difficult to achieve and/or sustain if the courts apply a different kind of justice to privileged offenders as compared to common accused.”
The Inquirer exposed the P10-billion scandal in a series of reports in 2013, prompting investigations that led to indictments against Napoles and some lawmakers.
In June 2014, the Office of the Ombudsman filed separate criminal charges against Enrile and Senators Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. and Jinggoy Estrada, with Napoles as their coaccused, for plunder and multiple counts of graft in connection with the pork barrel scam. Weeks later, the Sandiganbayan ordered their arrest.
Enrile allegedly pocketed more than P172 million in payoffs from his pork barrel. Reyes, his chief of staff then, was charged along with him.
Granted bail
He was detained at the Philippine National Police General Hospital while Estrada and Revilla were held at the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame.
Citing his advanced age and poor health, the Supreme Court granted bail to Enrile in August 2015.
President Marcos appointed Enrile as his presidential legal counsel in 2022. Enrile was the defense minister who led a mutiny against Ferdinand Marcos Sr. that triggered the 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution that drove the Marcoses from Malacañang.
In September 2023, the Sandiganbayan allowed Enrile to file a demurrer to evidence for his plunder case.
On Oct. 4, 2024, the court granted the separate demurrers from Enrile and Napoles in the plunder case, dismissing the case against them. The Sandiganbayan denied a similar motion filed by Reyes, but acquitted her in a trial.
Both Revilla and Estrada were also acquitted of plunder. —WITH A REPORT FROM INQUIRER RESEARCH
