Enrile, Napoles, Reyes acquitted of P172-M plunder case

The Sandiganbayan has acquitted former Senate President and current Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile, his former chief of staff Jessica Lucila Reyes, and businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles in a ₱172.8-million plunder case related to the pork barrel scam that surfaced in 2013.

The anti-graft court Special Third Division cited the prosecution’s failure to prove that Enrile, 100, was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

The three were accused of pocketing almost P200 million worth of kickbacks from Enrile’s Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) from 2004 to 2010 by channeling the same with bogus non-government organizations owned by Napoles.

Enrile, along with Senators Bong Revilla and Jinggoy Estrada, was charged with graft and plunder when the PDAF scandal emerged in 2013. All three have since been acquitted.

The Ombudsman indicted Enrile and 2014 and the case had been pending for nearly ten years until state prosecutors concluded their presentation of evidence against the former senator on the plunder case.

Ready Enrile

Earlier this year, Enrile expressed his readiness for the courts to decide on his plunder case. "Let them decide," he said, emphasizing that the case had been pending for over 10 years without substantial evidence presented against him.

He also noted that while his co-accused Senators Estrada Revilla and had been acquitted, his case remained unresolved.