MANILA, Philippines -- After more than a year since the suspension of his trial, former Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile will have to face the court again soon over his alleged involvement in the multibillion-peso pork barrel scam.
This, after the Third Division of the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court denied Enrile's motion to quash his plunder case.
In a 38-page resolution promulgated on January 31, a copy of which was released to the media on Wednesday, the Third Division affirmed the validity of the information of the plunder case filed by the Office of the Ombudsman in June 2014.
“In sum, the Court finds that the [case] Information sufficiently alleges the ultimate facts constituting the crime of plunder. Thus, accused Enrile's motion to dismiss/quash deserves denial,” the ruling penned by Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang, division chair, read.
Associate Justices Sarah Jane Fernandez and Zaldy Trespeses concurred with the ruling.
The proceedings of Enrile's plunder case have been suspended since October 2015 as the Third Division decided to await the Supreme Court's final ruling on his motion for bill of particulars urging the High Court to compel the prosecution to supply additional information on the case.
In his motion to quash filed before the Third Division in September last year, Enrile said the case must be dismissed as the facts in the charge sheet do not constitute the crime of plunder.
The former senator said that the even with its submission of the bill of particulars, the prosecution still failed to identify his specific overt criminal act that would link him as conspirator in the commission of the crime.
Enrile: Prosecutors failed to make case
For one, Enrile said, the prosecution failed to identify the occasions or dates when he personally received kickbacks from the alleged scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles or her representative.
Enrile said the prosecution also failed to identify the main plunderer in the case, as it cannot even provide a detailed breakdown of how much money each of the respondents received in the commission of the alleged crime.
The court said Enrile's arguments are devoid of merit. It said that the sufficiency of the case information had already been affirmed by the SC when it admitted the bill of particulars submitted by the prosecution.
“Considering that the Supreme Court already noted the said compliance of the prosecution...this issue of alleged insufficiency of the bill of particulars cannot be relitigated through this vehicle conveniently denominated as a 'motion to dismiss/quash',” the court said.
The Third Division also maintained that even without the additional information from the prosecution, the key elements of plunder – such as the involvement of a public officer, conspiracy and the illegal amassing of public fund of at least P50 million – are already present in the original case information sheet.
The court said the specific details that Enrile is looking for in the case information sheet are best discussed during the trial proper.
“The additional details which accused Enrile seeks such as how the kickback was received and a detailed description of the project are all evidentiary matters which can be provided during the trial,” the court said.
The court further said there is also no need to state the specific amount that each accused in the case allegedly received in the case information.
“In the crime of plunder, the amount of ill-gotten wealth acquired by each accused in a conspiracy is immaterial for as long as the total amount amassed, acquired or accumulated is at least P50 million,” the ruling read.
Enrile is accused of amassing P172.834 million worth of kickbacks through his former chief of staff Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Reyes by allegedly allocating his Priority Development Assistance Fund or pork barrel to the fake foundations allegedly owned by Napoles.
Reyes is currently detained at the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology Female Dormitory in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig while Napoles is detained at the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City.
Enrile, on the other hand, was released from hospital arrest at the Philippine National Police General Hospital in August 2015 after the SC granted his petition for bail.
Just last month, January 3, the Third Division also denied Reyes' own motion to quash the plunder case.