Enrile, Reyes, Napoles cleared of plunder in pork scam

15 counts of graft still pending

MANILA, Philippines — After a decade, the trial for plunder of former senator and now presidential legal adviser Juan Ponce Enrile, his former chief of staff Jessica Lucila Reyes and businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles by the Sandiganbayan ended in their acquittal.

In a vote of 4-1, the Sandiganbayan Special Third Division yesterday acquitted Enrile, Reyes and Napoles “for failure of the prosecution to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt.”

The plunder cases, filed by the Office of the Ombudsman on June 5, 2014, stemmed from Enrile’s alleged receipt, through Reyes, of a total of P172.83 million in commissions or kickbacks from Napoles in exchange for the allocation of his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel to the businesswoman’s bogus non-government organizations, during his term as a senator from 2004 to 2010.

Enrile and Napoles were acquitted without presenting any defense as the court granted their respective demurrers to evidence, in which they prayed for the dismissal of the case solely on the ground of the weakness of evidence of the prosecution.

Reyes, meanwhile, was acquitted after months of presenting her counter-evidence.

Following their acquittal, the court ordered the lifting of the hold departure order (HDO) on Enrile, Reyes and Napoles as well as the release of the bail bond that they previously posted for their provisional liberty.

The court, meanwhile, ordered the issuance of new arrest warrants against Napoles’ nephew Ronald Lim and former employee John Raymund de Asis, as their cases were temporarily archived.

“I thank the justices for rendering justice for all of us. I knew all along that I’ll be acquitted because I have not done anything. We have not done anything in this case and hope that the people who filed these cases against us will examine their conscience,” Enrile, a centenarian, said.

Enrile’s chief legal counsel, former solicitor-general Estelito Mendoza, meanwhile, described the decision as a “vindication” for the former senator and his co-accused.

“We are vindicated. It was a long road but today, JPE is acquitted, including Gigi Reyes,” Mendoza said.

Reyes immediately left the Sandiganbayan building after her acquittal, while Napoles was escorted by personnel of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) back to the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong City.

Despite her acquittal, Napoles will remain in prison as she was earlier convicted of plunder and multiple counts of graft also in connection with the multibillion-peso pork barrel scam.

None of the prosecution lawyers from the Office of the Ombudsman granted interviews with the media after the promulgation.

Pending charges

Enrile, Reyes and Napoles, however, are still facing 15 counts of graft before the Third Division in connection with the same alleged PDAF misuse.

Enrile was granted bail by the Supreme Court (SC) in 2015 for “humanitarian consideration,” citing his frail health condition and old age.

Reyes, meanwhile, was released from the Taguig City Jail Female Dormitory in January 2023 after nearly nine years in detention, after the SC granted her petition for writ of habeas corpus. In its resolution, the SC said Reyes’ nine years of detention for a pending plunder case was a violation of her right to speedy trial and right to liberty.

In its 84-page decision, the Sandiganbayan Third Division said the prosecution panel of the ombudsman failed to establish all the elements of plunder as defined under Section 2 of Republic Act 7080 or the Anti-Plunder Law.

For one, the court said it was not established that there was a series of “overt criminal acts” on the part of Enrile and his co-accused to amass ill-gotten wealth of at least P50 million, the threshold amount for the crime to be considered as plunder.

The court said that while it was established that Enrile wrote letter-requests to the Senate committee on finance for the release of his PDAF for 2006, 2007 and 2010 to various NGOs, that did not prove anything, especially his “criminal intention to commit an offense.”

“It must be shown clearly and convincingly that in making the letter-requests, Enrile intended to receive kickbacks or commissions in exchange for his endorsement of Napoles’ NGOs,” the Sandiganbayan said in its decision, penned by Associate Justice Ronald Moreno.

“If the NGOs turned out to be spurious, then it should have been established that Enrile either participated in the faking of these NGOs, or knew at the time that he was making the letter-request that the NGOs were bogus. The prosecution’s evidence was clearly wanting on these points,” it added.

More importantly, the court said, no documentary evidence or witnesses was presented by the prosecution to prove that Enrile or Reyes personally received commissions or kickbacks from Napoles or from any of the latter’s employees or representatives.

“Verily, the prosecution failed to prove the allegation that Enrile received a percentage of the cost of any project funded from his PDAF in consideration for the latter’s endorsement to Napoles’ NGO,” the decision read.

No witnesses

The court said that while state witness Ruby Tuason testified that she delivered Enrile’s kickbacks to Reyes, no other evidence or witnesses were presented to corroborate her claim.

“Clearly, Tuason made no mention at all of the amounts, and the details and particulars of the alleged deliveries she made to Reyes. Nowhere in her testimony did she ever state that she delivered a particular sum to Reyes corresponding to a specific project, the specific date of the delivery and the specific place where the kickbacks and commission had been received,” the court said.

As for Napoles, the court said she cannot be solely convicted of plunder as the Plunder Law requires that the main plunderer or plunderers are public officials.

The court said a private individual can only be held guilty of plunder if proven that he or she conspired with the public official in the commission of the crime.

“Since the prosecution was unable to prove the receipt of money as alleged in the [case] Information by herein public officers Enrile and Reyes (the alleged main plunderers), then Napoles could not be found liable for the offense charged since the basis of her indictment was conspiracy with the said public officers,” the court said.

Furthermore, the Sandiganbayan stated that it was not proven “with moral certainty” that the amount of kickbacks or commission allegedly received by Enrile or Reyes from Napoles was at least P50 million.

The court said that based on a “ledger” or daily disbursement records (DDR) of Napoles’ former employee and primary witness Benhur Luy, only P46.387 million was indicated.

Associate Justices Bernelito Fernandez, Geraldine Faith Econg and Juliet Manalo-San Gaspar concurred with the ruling.

Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice and Third Division chairperson Amparo Cabotaje-Tang, while concurring with the acquittal of Enrile, voted for the conviction of Reyes on five counts of direct bribery and Napoles on five counts corruption of public officials.

For Tang, the prosecution was able to sufficiently establish that Reyes received a total of P46.387 million from Napoles for the PDAF allocation of Enrile released to NGOs controlled by Napoles.

“Further, as established earlier, the DDRs of Luy and the testimony of Tuason proved that accused Reyes, through Tuason, received from accused Napoles the amount of P46,387,500.00 on at least five different instances,” Tang’s 255-page concurring and dissenting opinion read.

For Tang, Reyes should be sentenced to a minimum of eight years to a maximum of nine years and four months of imprisonment for each count of the offense while Napoles should be sentenced to eight years to 10 years of imprisonment for each count of her offense.

Tang said Reyes and Napoles must also be meted with a fine of P139 million each.

Enrile was among the three senators charged with plunder during the administration of the late former president Benigno Aquino III in connection with the pork barrel scam.

The Sandiganbayan had earlier acquitted Sen. Bong Revilla and Sen. Jinggoy Estrada of their respective plunder cases.