Sandiganbayan clears JPE, Reyes, Napoles in plunder raps

By Benjamin Pulta, Philippine News Agency

Reyes was Enrile’s chief of staff at the time. (File Photo: Juan Ponce Enrile/Facebook)

MANILA – The Sandiganbayan on Friday acquitted Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile, lawyer Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Reyes, and businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles in the PHP172-million plunder case filed against them in connection with the pork barrel scam.

The court ruled the acquittal was due to the prosecution’s failure to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

In its 84-page decision written by Associate Justice Ronald B. Moreno, the anti-graft court’s Special Third Division ruled to grant demurrers to evidence filed by Enrile and Napoles.

A demurrer is a court filing that seeks the dismissal of a case after the presentation of the prosecution’s evidence and cites that the prosecution failed to prove its case.

“In our criminal justice system, the overriding consideration is not whether the court doubts the innocence of the accused but whether it entertains a reasonable doubt as to his guilt. In order to convict an accused, the circumstances of the case must exclude all and every hypothesis consistent with his innocence,” the court said in the acquittal.

“The prosecution bears the task of establishing the guilt of an accused, relying on the strength of its own evidence, and not banking on the weakness of the defense of an accused. Requiring proof beyond reasonable doubt finds basis not only in the due process clause of the Constitution, but similarly, in the right of the accused to be presumed innocent until the contrary is proved. Undoubtedly, it is the constitutional presumption of innocence that lays such burden upon the prosecution. Should the prosecution fail to discharge its burden, it follows, as a matter of course, that an accused must be acquitted,” it explained.

The three along with two others, Napoles representatives Ronald John Lim and John Raymund De Asis who remain at large, are accused of amassing PHP172.8 million from 2004 to 2010 through kickbacks and/or commissions on projects funded by then Senator Enrile’s Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

Reyes was Enrile’s chief of staff at the time.

Prosecutors claimed the accused misappropriated the PDAF funds by endorsing Napoles’ controlled non-government organizations (NGOs) to be recipients and target implementors of ghost or fictitious projects.