MANILA — Former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, his longtime aide Jessica “Gigi” Reyes, and alleged pork barrel scam architect Janet Lim Napoles have all been acquitted of 15 graft charges after the Sandiganbayan ruled that prosecutors failed to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt in connection with the alleged misuse of Enrile’s P172-million Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).
In a 90-page ruling promulgated Friday, the anti-graft court’s Special Third Division declared that “the prosecution failed to discharge its burden of proof,” effectively absolving all accused — including Enrile’s former deputy chief of staff Jose Antonio Evangelista II — of both criminal and civil liabilities. The decision, penned by Presiding Justice Ronald Moreno, also ordered the lifting of all hold departure orders against them.
The 101-year-old Enrile attended the promulgation remotely from his hospital bed, while Reyes appeared in person. Napoles, detained for other PDAF-related cases, joined via videoconference.
The acquittal marks another major reversal in the long-running legal saga surrounding the pork barrel scam that shook the nation’s political establishment in 2013.
During trial, prosecutors presented a 2012 letter allegedly signed by Enrile and addressed to the Commission on Audit (COA) confirming the authenticity of documents linked to questionable fund releases. But Reyes disowned the document, testifying that she had never seen it and that it did not pass through her office.
“I raised the issue, very respectfully, to my former boss, because I said, ‘Boss, how can you be the one to authenticate our signatures? I haven’t seen it,’” Reyes told the court. She added that Enrile later admitted he could no longer recall signing the letter, while Evangelista apologized, saying he acted on COA’s request because Reyes was busy at the time.
Despite testimonies from several local agriculture officers that the farm inputs and livelihood kits funded by Enrile’s PDAF were never delivered, the court ruled that the evidence was insufficient to directly link the senator and his staff to any fraudulent disbursements.
The decision effectively closes another chapter in the decade-old pork barrel controversy that led to the downfall of several lawmakers and exposed deep-seated corruption in the country’s public fund system.
Photo caption: Former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, seen here attending the promulgation remotely from his hospital bed, was acquitted alongside Jessica “Gigi” Reyes and Janet Lim Napoles in the P172-million pork barrel graft cases after the Sandiganbayan found insufficient evidence to convict them./PN
