Graft ruling vs Enrile et al. on pork barrel postponed

The decade-old graft trial of former senator Juan Ponce Enrile faced another delay after the Sandiganbayan postponed the promulgation of judgment to October 24.

The 101-year-old Enrile and Janet Lim Napoles attended the scheduled promulgation on Tuesday via Zoom, while the former’s ex-chief of staff, Gigi Reyes, was physically present in the courtroom along with other co-accused.

The promulgation was initially set for 8:30 a.m., but lawyer Dennis Pulma, clerk of court of the anti-graft court's Third Division, announced the postponement at nearly 10 a.m., citing the need for further deliberation.

Enrile, Reyes, and Napoles face 15 counts of graft over the alleged misuse of the ex-senator’s P172.8 million Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), also known as pork barrel funds, during his tenure as senator.

They were acquitted of plunder in October last year due to the prosecution’s failure to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

Napoles’ “delivery man,” Fernando Ramirez, was also acquitted by the Sandiganbayan in February due to a lack of probable cause.

Enrile and Reyes were accused of embezzling P172.8 million in public funds from 2004 to 2010, which were channeled to the Napoles-led non-governmental organization.

Napoles, dubbed the “pork barrel queen,” engineered several bogus NGOs to implement the PDAF-funded projects of members of Congress, including Enrile, in exchange for kickbacks.

Investigation by the Ombudsman found that the projects in question were ghost or non-existent. The Ombudsman indicted them for graft and plunder in 2014.

Reyes, who served nearly nine years in prison until her temporary release in January 2023, denied receiving kickbacks from Enrile's PDAF.

Enrile was put under hospital arrest but was released after more than a year in August 2015 as the Supreme Court granted his bail petition, citing his advanced age and frail health.

Enrile, along with Senator Jinggoy Estrada and ex-senator Bong Revilla, was among the first lawmakers charged with plunder and graft when the PDAF scandal erupted in mid-2013.

Like Enrile, Estrada and Revilla were also exonerated of plunder, which carries a penalty of reclusion perpetua and forfeiture of ill-gotten wealth.

Based on the Ombudsman's findings, Revilla received the biggest commission, amounting to P224 million, followed by Estrada with P183 million, and Enrile with P172 million.

In 2021, Revilla also walked free from 16 graft charges, while Estrada was convicted of bribery in January and still has pending graft cases in the Sandiganbayan.

The PDAF, allocated to members of Congress, is a lump-sum discretionary fund intended to finance their pet projects. In November 2013, the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional after it became a source of corruption.

A special report by the Commission on Audit revealed that P6.156 billion worth of PDAF was released to questionable NGOs, including those controlled by Napoles.