Former legislator Rizalina Seachon-Lanete of Masbate and alleged pork barrel mastermind Janet Napoles have failed to clear their names of plunder and graft after the Sandiganbayan ruled that government prosecutors had provided sufficient evidence to support the charges against them.

The anti-graft court has denied Lanete's motion for leave to file a demurrer to evidence due to a lack of merit in a decision dated 21 November but released on Thursday.

It also denied similar motions filed by Napoles and their cohort, former Technology Resource Center director Dennis Cunanan, in a separate decision dated 25 November.

Both resolutions were penned by Associate Justice Lorifel Lacap Pahimna, with the concurrence of Associate Justices Michael Frederick Musngi and Bayani Jacinto.

A demurrer to evidence can be filed only with the court's permission and only after the prosecution has finished presenting its evidence on the criminal charges. If a demurrer is filed without the court's permission and is denied, the accused effectively waives their right to present their own evidence.

The 21 November resolution held that the same body of evidence was sufficient to overcome the presumption of innocence in the plunder case against Lanete as well as in her pending multiple graft charges with Cunanan and Maria Rosalinda Lacsamana.

The Sandiganbayan's conclusion that the prosecution lacked compelling evidence to prove the defendants' guilt when it granted bail to Napoles and Lanete on 12 April 2016 appears to have changed significantly in light of the twin rulings.

"The testimonial and documentary evidence presented by the prosecution, unless successfully rebutted by the accused, are sufficient to support a verdict of guilt against accused Napoles," the court said.

In denying Lanete, Cunanan and Lacsamana's motions for leave to file demurrer to evidence, the court's fourth division found solid evidence against them, contrary to the defense contention that the elements of the criminal charges had not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

The ex-lawmaker cited the court's 12 April 2016 ruling that there was not enough evidence to convict her, but the Sandiganbayan stressed that the grant of bail was based on a summary hearing, which is less rigorous than a merits trial.

Her claim that someone forged her signatures on transaction documents could not be presumed but must be proven by "clear, positive, and convincing evidence," according to Sandiganbayan.

Lanete was accused of pocketing P108.4 million from her Priority Development Assistance Fund or "pork barrel" allocations as a former House member from 2007 to 2009 after funneling her Priority Development Assistance Fund into the Social Development Program for Farmers Foundations Inc., an alleged non-government organization controlled by Napoles in exchange for kickbacks.

They were charged with plunder and several counts of graft in connection with the alleged crime.

Since 2016, Lanete has been out on bail, while Napoles is incarcerated at the Correctional Institution for Women after being found guilty in the plunder case involving Senator Bong Revilla.

The senator was acquitted in 2018 on all counts, but Napoles and Richard Cambe, his former chief of staff, were convicted of plunder and graft.