MANILA – Former Senate president and now Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile has been acquitted in the P172-million plunder case filed in connection with the pork barrel scam.
In a decision released on Friday morning, the Sandiganbayan Third Division stated that state prosecutors failed to prove Enrile and the others’ guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
“I knew all along that I will be acquitted because we have not done anything in this case,” Enrile said. “And I hope the people who filed those cases against us will examine their conscience.”
Also absolved by the Sandiganbayan are Enrile’s former chief of staff Jessica “Gigi” Reyes, and businesswoman and alleged “pork barrel scam queen” Janet Lim Napoles.
Two of Enrile’s co-accused, namely Ronald John Lim and John Raymund de Asis, remain at large, according to the Sandiganbayan.
Enrile, Reyes, Napoles, and several others were charged by the Office of the Ombudsman before the Sandiganbayan over the alleged misuse of Enrile’s Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), the formal name of pork barrel.
The plunder case was filed against Enrile and the others in June 2014 and it was only in January 2024 when government prosecutors finished their presentation of evidence against the respondents.
Under Section of Republic Act 7080, a public official can be charged with plunder if he “amasses, accumulates or acquires ill-gotten wealth through a combination or series of overt criminal acts” an aggregate amount or total value of at least P50 million.
The 100-year-old Enrile was placed under hospital arrest but was given provisional liberty in 2015 after posting P1.45-million bail after he voluntarily surrendered to the Sandiganbayan.
The Sandiganbayan’s verdict on Enrile and the others was supposed to come out in May 2024 but was postponed to June and again to July before it finally proceeded on Friday./PN