Former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and co-accused Janet Lim Napoles leave the Sandiganbayan on October 4, 2024, following their acquittal for plunder. Enrile's former aide Gigi Reyes was also cleared by the Sandiganbayan Third Division. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News

MANILA — The Sandiganbayan on Friday acquitted Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile and his co-accused Gigi Reyes and Janet Napoles in a plunder case connected with the pork barrel scam. 

"I knew all along that I will be acquitted because we have not done anything in this case. And I hope the people who filed those cases against us will examine their conscience," Enrile told reporters.

Enrile and Reyes were accused of conspiring with Napoles to amass P172.83 million in kickbacks from the former Senate president’s Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) through ghost NGOs created by Napoles.

The Sandiganbayan Special Third Division found that 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 endorsement to Napoles’s NGOs. It found “speculative and baseless” the prosecution’s claim that Enrile’s co-accused could not have consummated the scheme without his knowledge and cooperation.

“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,” the Sandiganbayan said.

“The indictment against Enrile alleged that he (and/or Reyes) repeatedly received from Napoles or the latter’s representative/s kickbacks or commissions in the form of a percentage of the cost of the project to be funded from his PDAF. However, none of the prosecution witnesses testified that they handed or transferred money to Enrile himself,” the court added, noting that Benhur Luy was unable to substantiate his claim that money had been given to Reyes for Enrile.

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The anti-graft court also said that prosecution witness Ruby Tuason’s testimony on giving the money she allegedly received from Napoles or Benhur Luy to Reyes, “lacked details or particulars of the alleged deliveries”, specifically the number of deliveries made, the amounts and the dates. The court, then found no basis to conclude, based on Tuason’s testimony, that Reyes indeed received money totaling P46.38 million, as claimed.

“Tuason’s testimony was inconclusive and insufficient to prove with moral certainty that Reyes received monies forming part of Enrile’s PDAF or that the same passed her hand. In short, the evidence on record failed to satisfy the quantum of evidence required in criminal cases, that is proof beyond reasonable doubt, to conclude that Reyes received on several occasions the aggregate sum of P46,487,500 from Tuason as kickbacks or commissions,” the decision read.

“We emphasize at the onset that Luy’s testimony, by itself, could not prove that Reyes received money since as he himself did not deliver money to the latter, and as such has no personal knowledge of such fact,” it added.

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On Napoles’s liability, the Sandiganbayan said the presented evidence failed to establish her supposed act of giving kickbacks or commissions to Enrile or Reyes.

“While Tuason claimed that she had vouchers to evidence her receipt of money from Napoles, she was unable to produce or show these vouchers in court. Luy also confirmed that aside from the DDRs, he did not have any other evidence to prove that Napoles received a portion of Enrile’s PDAF,” its decision stated.

The Sandiganbayan Special Third Division has five members. Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang issued a 255-page concurring and dissenting opinion.

VINDICATION

Former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and co-accused Janet Lim Napoles leave the Sandiganbayan on October 4, 2024, following their acquittal for plunder. Enrile's former aide Gigi Reyes was also cleared by the Sandiganbayan Third Division. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News

In an interview after the promulgation, Enrile thanked the anti-graft court magistrates for “rendering justice”. The former Senate President said he knew he expected the plunder acquittal because “he did not do anything wrong”.

“Pinasasalamatan ko ‘yung mga mahistrado for rendering justice to all of us… I knew all along that I will be acquitted, because we have not done anything… I hope the people who filed those cases against us will examine their conscience,” Enrile told the media.

His lawyer Estelito Mendoza called the Sandiganbayan decision a “vindication” of his client.

Napoles said she was happy about the ruling and thanked those who prayed for her.

“God is good. Thank you. Thank you. Sa lahat ng nagdasal, thank you very much!” she said.

Reyes did not grant a media interview.

Enrile, Napoles, and Reyes still have pending graft cases before the Sandiganbayan.

Napoles is serving sentence for conviction in graft and other crimes related to the PDAF of other lawmakers. In 2015, the Supreme Court granted Enrile’s petition for bail on humanitarian reasons. Reyes was also released from jail in 2023 by virtue of the Petition for Habeas Corpus on certain conditions, including physical attendance in hearings.

Senators Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. and Jinggoy Estrada were previously acquitted of plunder in connection with the PDAF scam.

Enrile’s criminal prosecution started on June 5, 2014 and had been pending for a decade.

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With a report from Vivienne Gulla, ABS-CBN News

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