Sandigan junks plea to reverse Enrile, Napoles acquittal for plunder
The Sandiganbayan has junked an appeal to overturn the acquittal of former Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, his former aide Jessica Lucila Reyes and businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles in the P172.8-million plunder case against them.
According to the 17-page resolution promulgated on May 29 and released only on Wednesday, the antigraft court’s Special Third Division said the prosecution’s appeal was “not allowed” because granting a demurrer to evidence in criminal cases is “final and unappealable.”
In its ruling last Oct. 4, the court cleared Enrile and Napoles of plunder in connection with the so-called “pork barrel scam” when it granted their separate demurrers to evidence, in which the accused asks the court to dismiss the case against them due to weak evidence. If denied by the court, the trial will continue.
Although the Sandiganbayan denied a similar motion filed by Reyes, it eventually acquitted her in the decision.
Enrile, currently the chief presidential legal counsel, was charged by the Ombudsman in 2014 with Reyes and Napoles. They were accused of amassing P172 million from his Priority Development Assistance Fund from 2004 to 2010 when he was still in the Senate.
Citing a 2004 Supreme Court ruling, People v. Sandiganbayan, the Sandiganbayan said that “it is beyond question that once a demurrer to evidence has been granted in a criminal case, [it] amounts to an acquittal, and any further prosecution for the same offense would violate Article III, Section 21 of the Constitution, the constitutional proscription on double jeopardy.”
“There is no showing that this court, in granting the demurrers to evidence of accused Enrile and Napoles, blatantly abused its authority to a point so grave as to deprive it of its very power to dispense. Accordingly, the dismissal of the case against them stands,” added the resolution penned by Associate Justice Ronald Moreno.
The court pointed out that it “cannot be faulted” for refusing to consider the testimony and documentary evidence from prosecution witnesses Ruby Tuason and Benhur Luy, saying they either “lacked details” or were “inadmissible.”
Tuason, a former Malacañang social secretary during the Estrada administration, supposedly gave the kickbacks to Reyes for Enrile.
Luy, on the other hand, is a cousin of Napoles who served as a financial officer for the latter’s company, JLN Corp.
“Tuason even admitted that she could not recall the amounts given to Reyes, and did not count the amount handed to her for delivery,” the Sandiganbayan said.
