After a decade-long trial, the Sandiganbayan has ruled that Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile was not guilty of plunder in relation to the alleged anomalous utilization of his P172.8 million pork barrel funds during his stint as senator.
The anti-graft court Special Third Division handed down the ruling on Friday, citing the prosecution's failure to prove Enrile's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Enrile's former chief of staff, Gigi Reyes, and alleged pork barrel mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles were also acquitted of plunder raps.
The 100-year-old Enrile, who personally attended the promulgation, thanked the magistrates of the Sandiganbayan for his long-overdue vindication.
"I knew all along that I will be acquitted because we have not done anything in this case. And I hope the people who filed those cases against us will examine their conscience," the seasoned lawmaker said in an ambush interview after the promulgation.
The three were accused of pocketing P172.8 million of kickbacks from Enrile's Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) from 2004 to 2010 by channeling the same with ghost non-government organizations (NGOs) created by Napoles.
The Ombudsman indicted Enrile in June 2014 and the case had been pending for nearly 10 years until state prosecutors concluded their presentation of evidence against the former senator on the plunder case in January.
Enrile, along with Senators Bong Revilla and Jinggoy Estrada, was among the first lawmakers charged with plunder and graft when the PDAF scandal erupted in mid-2013.
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.
The Ombudsman said Enrile received the total commission of P172,834,500 through Reyes and Ruby Tuason, who later turned as whistleblower along with Benhur Luy, who became a state witness.
Revilla had already been cleared of corruption charges, while Estrada—also absolved of plunder—is still facing 11 counts of graft.
Enrile's PDAF was supposed to fund livelihood and agricultural projects in different parts of the country.
However, the Ombudsman's investigation later revealed that no deliveries were made to the supposed beneficiaries, and mayors and municipal agriculturists also denied receiving any.
The prosecution had alleged Reyes signed the letters endorsing various NGOs as implementing agencies of Enrile's PDAF. But Reyes has maintained making endorsements was never part of her duties.
Reyes, who served nearly nine years in prison until her temporary release in January last year, had told the court that she did not accumulate any amount from Enrile's PDAF.
Enrile, meanwhile, was put under hospital detention and has been out since mid-2015 after the Supreme Court granted his petition to bail due to his advanced age and frail health condition.
The verdict
In absolving Enrile, the Sandiganbayan said the prosecution witnesses—Luy and Tuason—admitted themselves that they did not directly hand money to Enrile as kickbacks.
“Verily, the prosecution failed to prove the allegation that Enrile received a percentage of the cost of any project funded from his PDAF in consideration for the latter's endorsement to Napoles' NGOs,” the 84-page decision read.
Furthermore, the court also said the prosecution failed to prove that Enrile either participated in the faking of the NGOs or was aware that it was bogus.
“It must be shown clearly and convincingly that in making the letter-requests, Enrile intended to receive kickbacks or commissions in exchange for his endorsement of Napoles' NGOs,” it said.
As for Reyes and Napoles, the Sandigabayan said they “do not see any basis to convict” the two of direct bribery and corruption of public officials, respectively, citing the lack of evidence establishing Napoles' act of giving kickbacks to Enrile or Reyes.
“To prove plunder, the prosecution must weave a web out of the six ways of illegally amassing wealth and show how the various acts reveal a combination or series of means or schemes that reveal a pattern of criminality,” it said.
“The prosecution failed to establish with moral certainty that either Enrile and/or Reyes received these amounts from Tuason [acting as an agent of Napoles]. At any rate, the sum of these five DDRs (Daily Disbursement Report) amounted to only P46,387,500 million,” the court added, noting that such an amount did not breach the plunder threshold of P50 million.
The Sandiganbayan also pointed out that they could not merely rely on the DDRs presented by Luy in 2013, which were all unsigned.
“Per Luy, the original copies of the said DDRs which are all signed copies, were at the vault at the office of JLN Corporation, together with the checks corresponding thereto, which miserably the prosecution failed to present as evidence,” the court stated.
Despite not being guilty of plunder, Enrile and Reyes are still not entirely off the hook because they are still facing 15 counts of graft, which remains pending in court.
Napoles, meanwhile, will remain behind bars for her conviction on corruption charges all related to the PDAF scam.
The PDAF allocated to congressmen and senators is a lump-sum and discretionary fund that allows them to finance their pet projects.
Senators are entitled to P200 million each in PDAF annually, while members of the House of Representatives can get P70 million each.
Luy exposed the embezzlement of these funds through a fraudulent scheme in an exclusive interview with a newspaper in July 2013.
A month later, a special report by the Commission on Audit found that P6.156 billion worth of PDAF was released to questionable NGOs, including those of Napoles.
Enrile, Revilla, and Estrada were among several lawmakers implicated in the multi-billion pork barrel scam, most of whom were already acquitted of the corruption charges.
The PDAF scam led the Supreme Court to abolish it and declare it unconstitutional in November 2013 after it became a source of corruption.