Enrile, 2 others cleared of plunder

FORMER Senate president and now Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile was acquitted by the Sandiganbayan in a plunder case on Friday after more than 10 years of trial.

His two co-accused in the P172.83 million case, his former chief of staff Jessica Lucila «Gigi» Reyes and convicted pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles, were also found not guilty of the charge.

In the 84-page decision written by Associate Justice Ronald Moreno, the court's Special Third Division granted the 100-year-old Enrile's demurrer, or objection, to evidence as well as Napoles' own demurrer without leave of court.

Concurring with Moreno were Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang and Associate Justices Bernelito Fernandez, Geraldine Faith Econg, and Juliet Manalo-San Gaspar.

Enrile's demurrer means that the defense believes that the prosecution's evidence is insufficient to warrant a conviction.

The court ruled that the prosecution failed to establish that Enrile received some of the money that was amassed from his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) for 2006, 2007 and 2010, noting that his letter request to the Senate president or the Senate Committee on Finance was a «regular process» that is being issued by the senators for use as financial assistance to a certain local government unit.

It said none of the prosecution witnesses testified that they were handed or transferred money to Enrile himself coming from Napoles' kickbacks.

The prosecution also did not establish whether Reyes was able to acquire ill-gotten wealth from Ruby Tuason, the socialite who allegedly acted as the middleman in the transactions between Reyes and Enrile.

«In her testimony, Tuason merely stated that she gave the money which she allegedly received from Napoles or (Benhur) Luy to accused Reyes; it lacked details or particulars of the alleged deliveries, specifically the number of deliveries made vis-å-vis the amounts given to Reyes per delivery. Nowhere in Tuason's testimony did she even mention, or even intimated, the amounts she handed or gave to Reyes,» the ruling said.

Luy, Napoles' nephew who was also implicated in the scandal, has testified that he did not have enough