Former Senator Juan Ponce Enrile escaped conviction for 15 counts of graft on Friday, marking his full vindication in a decade-old pork barrel case following his plunder acquittal in the same month last year.

Enrile’s exoneration came after more than 10 years since he was indicted by the Ombudsman, accusing him of siphoning P172.8 million from his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) to bogus non-governmental organizations created by Janet Lim Napoles in exchange for kickbacks.

Aside from the ex-senator, the Sandiganbayan also acquitted Napoles and Enrile’s longtime chief of staff, Gigi Reyes, citing the prosecution’s failure to prove their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. They were also acquitted of plunder in October last year, along with Enrile.

The 101-year-old Enrile—appearing frail and strapped to hospital tubes—attended the promulgation of his last corruption case via Zoom. Napoles also attended remotely, while Reyes, who turned emotional after hearing the verdict, was present in the court.

Reyes declined to comment, but her lawyer stated that they did not expect the court to rule in their favor.

Despite the exculpation, Napoles, on the other hand, will remain behind bars over other PDAF-related cases.

All three were accused of colluding with other government officials to defraud the government of millions of pesos by diverting Enrile’s PDAF from 2004 to 2010 to the Napoles-led NGO.

Enrile’s PDAF was intended to fund his livelihood and agricultural projects, but an investigation by the Ombudsman revealed that no deliveries were made to the purported beneficiaries, rendering the project ghost or nonexistent.

The Ombudsman indicted Enrile in 2014 for plunder and graft, along with Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla. They were accused of endorsing fake NGOs created by Napoles to get huge kickbacks in return.

Like Enrile, Revilla also escaped criminal liability after the Sandiganbayan acquitted him of plunder and graft in 2018 and 2021, respectively. Estrada was also cleared of plunder, but he is still being tried in court for his graft cases. 

JPE’s defense

Enrile pointed to the alleged lack of clear evidence that he received any form of kickbacks from Napoles by endorsing her NGOs as implementers of his pet projects, which were funded from his PDAF.

The only witnesses who could link Enrile to the scheme were the so-called middleman, Ruby Tuason. However, the court found her testimony lacking key details, such as the specific amounts allegedly delivered to Reyes intended for Enrile, the tranche, date, and location of delivery.

“Thus, Tuason's testimony was not able to establish that Reyes received kickbacks or commissions intended for or on behalf of Enrile from his PDAF,” the 193-page decision reads.

In granting Enrile’s demurrer to evidence, leading to his acquittal, the Sandiganbayan Special Third Division unanimously ruled that the prosecution failed to establish that his endorsement of Napoles’ NGO was made with evident bad faith, nor that he demanded any commissions from it.

The court also gave weight to the “inconsistencies” of the prosecution’s witnesses, Tuason and Benhur Luy—Napoles’ ex-financial officer—regarding the purported kickbacks. 

Tuason told the court that the commission from the PDAF transactions was released in three tranches, while Luy claimed there were only two, effectively weakening their testimony.

Furthermore, the Sandiganbayan took into account Luy’s admission that he never met Enrile, had never seen him visit the Napoles’ office, and had never witnessed his supposed agents delivering kickbacks to him.

The anti-graft court ordered Napoles and other co-accused from the government to pay P337 million in Civil liabilities, but spared Enrile, Reyes, among others.

The PDAF, allocated to members of Congress, is a lump-sum and discretionary fund intended to finance their pet projects. The Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional in 2013 after it became a conduit 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.