Enrile pleads not guilty to graft charges in pork barrel scam

(UPDATED 5:04 P.M.) Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile on Friday pleaded not guilty to the graft charges he is facing at the Sandiganbayan in connection with the pork barrel scam.

"I have not committed any crime," Enrile told the court.

Likewise, his co-accused businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles and Technology Resource Center director general (on leave) Dennis Cunanan both pleaded not guilty to the graft raps.

Enrile's chief of staff Atty. Jessica "Gigi" Reyes on the other hand refused to enter a plea.



All of them are facing graft charges for allegedly pocketing kickbacks from the Priority Development Assistance Fund (also known as pork barrel) diverted to fake nongovernment organizations run by Napoles.

Enrile, Reyes, Napoles, Ronald John Lim and Raymund De Asis allegedly amassed P172.8 million in kickbacks from 2004 to 2010. They are all facing plunder charges aside from the graft raps.

 

Enrile and Reyes were accused of repeatedly receiving from Napoles and her representatives Lim and De Asis kickbacks and commissions.

 

Other co-accused in the graft cases were Enrile's staff Jose Antonio Evangelista and officials of the Department and Budget Management and implementing agencies who allegedly helped divert government funds to bogus non-government organizations linked with Napoles.

 

Also accused were officials and representatives of the NGOs.

 

The Ombudsman said that before, during and after the project identification, the accused senator or his representative received a percentage of the cost of the project to be funded by the PDAF in exchange for the endorsement to the government agency of Napoles' foundation which became the recipient or target implementor of the project.

 

The project turned out to be ghost or fictitious thus enabling Napoles to misappropriate the PDAF proceeds for her personal gain.

 

The Ombudsman said the accused took "undue advantage, on several occasions, of their official position, authority, relationship, connection and influence to unjustly enrich  themselves at the expense and to the damage and prejudice of the Filipino people."

 

Among the witnesses against the accused are Ruby Tuason, and Napoles' employees Benhur Luy, Merlina Suñas and Marina Sula.