The Sandiganbayan has acquitted former Senate President and current Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile of his remaining graft charges in the alleged diversion of P172.8 million in public funds linked to the pork barrel scam.
The anti-graft court’s Special Third Division also cleared Enrile’s former chief of staff, Jessica Lucila ‘Gigi’ Reyes, and the businesswoman at the center of the controversy, Janet Lim Napoles, of 15 graft counts during the case’s promulgation on Friday, Oct. 24.
The Sandiganbayan concluded that ‘the prosecution failed to prove their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.’
According to the decision penned by Special Third Division Chairperson Justice Ronald Moreno, the Sandiganbayan ordered Napoles and several co-accused to jointly pay the government amounts ranging from P8 million to P40 million, with six percent annual interest from the finality of the decision until full payment, for each count of graft.
However, the court ruled that no civil liability would be imposed on Enrile, Reyes, the senator’s former deputy chief of staff, Jose Antonio Evangelista II, and other co-accused.
The Sandiganbayan also noted that the graft cases against private individuals Eulogio Dimailig Rodriguez, officials of defunct National Agribusiness Corporation (NABCOR) Romulo Magahis Relevo, and former director of National Livelihood and Development Corp. (NLDC) Alexis Gagni Sevidal were dismissed due to their deaths, while the case against private individual Hernani Ditchon was likewise terminated on the same ground.
Charges against private individual Fernando Balbaira Ramirez were dismissed due to lack of probable cause.
Meanwhile, former Budget Undersecretary Mario Relampagos has been declared a fugitive, while former Technology Resource Center (TRC) Director General Antonio Ortiz, private individuals Ronald John Lim, Amparo L. Fernando, Aileen Palama, John Raymund De Asis, Noel V. Macha, and Margarita P. Guadinez, as well as former president NABCOR Alan Alunan Javellana, and NABCOR official Maria Julie Asor Villaralvo-Johnson, have yet to be arraigned and remain at large.
Enrile was only able to attend the promulgation via Zoom. The 101-year-old former senator appeared briefly on-screen during the reading of the decision on his remaining graft charges, looking frail and confined to a hospital bed.
Similarly, Napoles also attended both hearings virtually – one involving Enrile’s remaining graft cases and another concerning the alleged misuse of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) of former Senator Gregorio Honasan II.
Reyes, for her part, personally attended the promulgation. When asked for her reaction to the anti-graft court’s verdict, she said she was ‘thankful’ and ‘grateful.’
The charges against Enrile and others stemmed from the PDAF, or pork barrel, scandal that surfaced in 2013 after the Inquirer exposed the misuse of lawmakers’ discretionary funds for ghost projects.
Under the scheme, PDAF allocations were funneled into a network of bogus nongovernmental organizations run by Napoles.
Enrile, Reyes, and Napoles were indicted in 2014 for plunder, accused of pocketing P172.8 million in kickbacks from Enrile’s PDAF from 2004 to 2010.
Napoles was separately convicted of plunder in 2018 in connection with former Senator Ramon Revilla Jr.’s pork barrel funds.
On October 4, 2024, the Sandiganbayan acquitted Enrile of plunder, ruling that the prosecution failed to prove he received at least P50 million in kickbacks-the threshold for plunder.
Aside from Enrile, Revilla, and Senator Jinggoy Estrada were also charged with plunder over the PDAF scam but were later acquitted.