Pinawalang-sala ng Third Division ng Sandiganbayan si dating Senate president at ngayo'y Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile, sa kasong plunder kaugnay ng pork barrel scam na nagkakahalaga ng P172 milyon.

Sa desisyon ng mga mahistrado ng Sandiganbayan, lusot din sa naturang kaso ang dating chief of staff ni Enrile na si Atty. Jessica “Gigi” Reyes, at maging ang kontrobersiyal na negosyanteng si Janet Lim Napoles.

Pinawalang-sala ang tatlo dahil sa "the prosecution's failure to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt."

''I thank the magistrates. This is vindication for all of us,'' saad ni Enrile matapos igawad ang desisyon.

Nagpahayag din ng kasiyahan si Napoles na naging desisyon ng korte.

Sa kabila ng pagkakaabsuwelto sa naturang kaso, mananatiling nakakulong si Napoles dahil nahatulan siyang guilty sa dalawa pang kaso ng plunder dahil pa rin sa pork barrel scam.

Tumanggi naman si Reyes na magbigay ng pahayag.

Sa 84-pahinang desisyon, isinaad ng anti-graft court na ang katibayan na isinumite ng government prosecutors katulad ng mga testimonya ng mga saksing sina Benhur Luy at Ruby Tuason—  bukod pa sa Daily Disbursement Report (DDR) ni Luy, na nagpapakita ng pagtanggap umano nina Enrile at Reyes pera mula kay Napoles — ay hindi sapat para mapatunayan ang ibinibintang laban sa mga akusado.

“To prove plunder, the prosecution must weave a web out of the six ways of illegally amassing wealth and show how the various acts reveal a combination or series of means or schemes that reveal a pattern of criminality. The prosecution failed to establish with moral certainty that either Enrile and/or Reyes received these amounts from Tuason [acting as an agent of Napoles]. At any rate, the sum of these five DDRs amounted to only P46,387,500 million," ayon sa Sandiganbayan.

Hindi rin umano napatunayan ng kampo ng tagausig ang pagtanggap talaga ng pera nina Enrile at Reyes mula kay Napoles, gaya ng nakasaad sa alegasyon laban sa tatlo.

"When conspiracy is a means to commit a crime, it is indispensable that the agreement to commit the crime among all the conspirators, or their community of criminal design must be alleged and competently shown. In the present case, the prosecution's evidence was wanting on the receipt by Enrile and Reyes of money coming from Napoles,” ayon pa sa desisyon.

May pagdududa rin ang korte sa DDRs ni Luy, o ang listahan ng mga tao na tumanggap umano ng pera mula kay Napoles mula sa pork barrel transactions. Hindi umano orihinal na mga kopya ang DDRs.

"We point out that the DDRs that were printed by Luy sometime in 2013 from the data stored in his external drive were all unsigned; and that per Luy, the original copies of the said DDRs which are all signed copies were at the vault at the office of JLN Corporation, together with the checks corresponding thereto, which miserably the prosecution failed to present as evidence," ayon sa Sandiganbayan.

"How can we treat these unsigned DDRs as credible pieces of evidence when they were printed only in 2013, but they allegedly showed transactions that happened in 2004 to 2010 or after almost 10 years reckoned from 2004?" dagdag nito.

Ayon pa sa anti-graft court, hindi rin natukoy ni Tuason ang eksaktong halaga ng pera na natanggap niya mula kay Napoles na ipinamahagi umano sa mga mambabatas, at iba pang nakinabang sa transaksiyon,

"Tuason confirmed that she never counted the money handed to her for delivery. Also in her Supplemental Sworn Statement, Tuason categorically stated that she did not keep a record of her deliveries to Reyes because she thought it was not anymore necessary owing to the fact that Luy already had a record and [she] just assumed that the amount of money she delivered was correct. If Tuason did not even know how much money she allegedly had been giving to Reyes, then we cannot just assume that the money indicated in Luy's DDRs was indeed received by her (Reyes)," ayon sa desisyon ng Sandiganbayan.

"Per Tuason, she was made to sign a voucher as proof of the amount handed to her by Napoles or Luy. However, these vouchers were never presented in court, as Tuason claimed that she already handed them to Reyes. In the absence of any evidence from Tuason as regards the amounts handed to her by Luy or Napoles, there is nothing on record to verify the amounts allegedly given to Reyes, and whether it tallied with Luy's unsigned and unauthenticated DDRs. We cannot just rely on the assumption made by Tuason that the amount handed to her tallied with what Luy had written or recorded," dagdag nito--mula sa ulat ni Llanesca T. Panti/FRJ, GMA Integrated News