Sandigan starts hearing Gigi Reyes’ petition for bail

The Sandiganbayan on Thursday started the hearing on the petition for bail of Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Reyes, who served as chief of staff of former senator Juan Ponce Enrile, over their involvement in the pork barrel scam.

On the first day of the bail hearing before the anti-graft court’s Third Division, Reyes’ lawyer Anacleto Diaz grilled Benhur Luy over his admissions that he and the other whistleblowers forged the signatures of several lawmakers and government officials, prepared project proposals and list of beneficiaries as well as encashed the checks pertaining to the lawmakers’ Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel allocation.

Luy admitted he had no personal knowledge of whether Enrile had authorized anyone to get kickbacks from the alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles on his behalf.

The filing of the bail petition came after the Sandiganbayan’s Third Division on May 8 upheld its Jan. 3 ruling denying Reyes’ motion to quash the case.

Reyes is accused of receiving on Enrile’s behalf a total of P172.83 million worth of kickbacks in exchange for the then senator’s alleged allocation of his PDAF to the fake NGOs supposedly owned by Napoles.

Reyes and Napoles are currently detained at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig. Enrile, on the other hand, was ordered released by the Supreme Court from hospital arrest for humanitarian reasons due to his advanced age.