MANILA, Philippines – Juan Ponce Enrile, former senate president and now chief presidential legal counsel, has been acquitted of plunder in the pork barrel scam, effectively making it a 0-3 loss for the Benigno Aquino government’s biggest pork barrel scam cases.
The anti-graft court Sandiganbayan’s Third Division handed down the verdict on Friday, October 4, after more than 10 years of trial. Senators Bong Revilla and Jinggoy Estrada were the first two to win their cases.
But of the three big fish, only Enrile was not jailed (only hospital arrest), having scored in 2015 a bail grant from the Supreme Court (SC), a controversial decision on humanitarian bail penned by former chief justice Lucas Bersamin who is now Marcos’ executive secretary. This introduced a “new doctrine” in bail that has helped even Marcos’ mother Imelda escape detention when she was convicted of graft in 2018.
Enrile was accused of allegedly receiving P172.8 million in kickbacks from his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) through his chief-of-staff at the time, Gigi Reyes. In this scheme, lawmakers choose an implementing agency to give their pork barrel to, which then funnels it through the bogus NGOs of mastermind Janet Lim Napoles. The beneficiaries were random names, and the projects did not exist.
Napoles is serving sentence for plunder in the Revilla case, and for convictions related to several other lawmakers’ pork barrel.
Enrile’s graft cases are still pending in court.
During his trial, Enrile was able to challenge existing rules in judicial proceedings.
Gigi Reyes was able to duplicate Enrile’s feat by securing her release through a writ of habeas corpus, a legal remedy often invoked by activists against illegal detention. The SC agreed with Reyes’ arguments on her constitutional right to speedy trial, and that her detention had “become oppressive thus infringing upon her right to liberty.”
Senator Revilla’s acquittal was controversial because the court convicted his staff, but not him. He was also ordered to pay part of the P124 million that needs to be returned to the treasury, but the court has yet to collect it after five years.
Estrada was initially convicted of bribery, a downgrade from plunder, but the Sandiganbayan justices flip-flopped on appeal and decided to acquit him totally. – Rappler.com
