Sandiganbayan acquits Enrile, Reyes, Napoles of plunder over pork barrel scam

The Sandiganbayan Third Division on Friday acquitted former Senate president and now Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile, his former chief of staff Atty. Jessica “Gigi” Reyes, and businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles in the P172-million plunder case filed in connection with the pork barrel scam.

The court said the three were acquitted "due to the prosecution's failure to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt."

''I thank the magistrates. This is vindication for all of us,'' Enrile told reporters following the promulgation of the case.

Napoles, in a separate interview, also felt joy over her acquittal. “Siyempre, masaya (Of course I'm happy,” she said.

Napoles, however, will remain incarcerated due to at least two plunder convictions in connection with the pork barrel scam.

Reyes, on the other hand, did not respond to multiple queries from journalists if she thought justice has been served. 

No received copy

In its 84-page decision, the anti-graft court said the government prosecutors' evidence such as testimonies of witnesses Benhur Luy and Ruby Tuason — on top of Luy’s Daily Disbursement Report (DDR) showing that Enrile and Reyes received money from Napoles — are insufficient to prove that Enrile and Reyes indeed received money from Napoles.

“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," the Sandiganbayan said.

Since the prosecution was unable to prove the receipt of money as alleged in the criminal information, the Sandiganbayan said Napoles could not be found liable for plunder because the basis of her indictment was conspiracy with the said public officers.

"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,” the Sandiganbayan said.

The court also doubted Luy's DDRs or list of people who are receiving money from Napoles off pork barrel transactions, since the prosecution was not able to present the original copies of the DDR to prove its case.

"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," the Sandiganbayan said.

"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?" it added.

No exact amount, no kickback

In addition, the anti-graft court said Tuason never identified the exact amount of money that she received from Napoles for distribution to lawmakers and other beneficiaries of the said transaction.

"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)," the Sandiganbayan said.

"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," it added.

10-year case

The plunder case lasted 10 years from the time the Office of the Ombudsman found sufficient evidence to charge Enrile, Reyes, Napoles, and several others, before the Sandiganbayan over the alleged misuse of Enrile's Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), the formal name of pork barrel.

The plunder case was filed against Enrile and the others in June 2014.

In January 2024, government prosecutors finished their presentation of evidence against Enrile on the plunder case.

READ: Timeline of Enrile's 10-year plunder case

Under Section of Republic Act 7080, a public official can be charged with plunder if he "amasses, accumulates or acquires ill-gotten wealth through a combination or series of overt criminal acts" an aggregate amount or total value of at least P50 million.

Two of Enrile's co-accused, namely Ronald John Lim and John Raymund de Asis, remain at large, according to the Sandiganbayan.

Enrile, now 100 years old, was placed under hospital arrest but was given provisional liberty in 2015 after posting P1.45-million bail. At that time, he was an incumbent senator. He filed his petition to post bail on September 4, 2014, citing his advanced age and voluntary surrender to the Sandiganbayan.

The anti-graft court's verdict on Enrile and the others was supposed to come out in May 2024 but was postponed to June and again to July before it finally proceeded on Friday, October 4. —KBK, GMA Integrated News