Enrile on plunder acquittal: This is vindication

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile on Friday expressed vindication following his acquittal in the 10-year plunder case filed against him and several others over the pork barrel scam.

''I thank the magistrates. This is vindication for all of us,'' Enrile told reporters following the announcement of his acquittal by the Sandiganbayan Third Division.

After a decade of trial, the Sandiganbayan Third Division on Friday acquitted Enrile, his former chief of staff Atty. Jessica “Gigi” Reyes, and businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles in the P172-million plunder case. 

According to the Sandiganbayan, the three were acquitted "due to the prosecution's failure to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt."

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

In a separate message to GMA News Online, Enrile's daughter, Chief Executive Officer Katrina Ponce Enrile of the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority, said they are thankful that the ordeal is over and that ''justice was served.''

She deemed the case filed against her father as ''politically motivated.'' 

''We are all relieved that this ordeal that started in 2013 with a politically motivated charge is finally over and that justice was served. We thank the Lord for looking over us,'' she said. 

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

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