Former Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile. Photo by RYAN LEAGOGO/INQUIRER.net
Cagayan Gov. Manuel Mamba has requested Ombudsman Samuel Martires to seek the cancellation of former Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile’s bail in the veteran politician’s plunder case.
In a two-page letter sent to the graft buster on Tuesday, Mamba claimed that the 94-year-old Enrile’s registering to run for the Senate in next year’s midterm elections belied the Supreme Court finding that he should be released from jail on humanitarian grounds.
“This only proves that Juan Ponce Enrile falsely appealed to the Supreme Court’s pity to gain the relief of bail. It means that he is not so ‘ill’ as to be incapable of flight, as the Supreme Court declared,” Mamba said.
Enrile, who is out on P1.45-million bail despite being charged with plunder, a nonbailable offense, for his alleged role in the P10-billion pork barrel scam, on Wednesday swatted aside Mamba’s move to send him back to jail.
“Only the judicial system can say whether they want me to go back to jail. I will leave it to the good judgment of the Ombudsman and the Supreme Court,” Enrile told reporters.
Deception
Mamba also said local leaders “witnessed how Juan Ponce Enrile and his minions ravaged our beloved province for 40 years,” with alleged methods such as oppression through false charges.
“Juan Ponce Enrile is, and has always been, a liar and plunderer, no matter how frail he may look. Please do not be moved by his deception,” he wrote.
“At the end of the day, he is, as he should be, made accountable for his actions. Just as [the] government demands of an ordinary citizen, it must demand from Juan Ponce Enrile,” he added.
Enrile shrugged off Mamba’s accusation that he raped Cagayan.
“I never raped the country, never cut a single tree, never mined anything there,” he said.
“All the progress you can find in my province were done by me during my stint in the government,” he added.
Driven by hatred
“This guy [is doing this] because of his hatred of me. But they would not be in power were it not for me,” he said.
Enrile was charged on June 5, 2014, with graft and plunder for allegedly pocketing P172.8 million in kickbacks from fictitious projects funded with his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) allocations channeled to bogus foundations controlled by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged mastermind of the pork barrel scam.
The case has yet to reach the trial stage.
On July 14, 2014, the Sandiganbayan denied Enrile’s bail petition on the grounds of prematurity.
Fragile health
Enrile appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, which in a controversial ruling on Aug. 18, 2015, allowed him to be released, citing “special, humanitarian and compelling circumstances.”
The high court cited the “currently fragile state of Enrile’s health,” based on the findings of then Philippine General Hospital Director Jose Gonzales that he had hypertension, cardiovascular disease, arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat), and asthma-chronic obstructive pulmonary disease overlap syndrome.
The Supreme Court did not only cite Enrile’s health, it also pointed to his immediate surrender to authorities and his “utter respect for the legal processes.”
The decision also cited “his solid reputation in both his public and his private lives, his long years of public service, and history’s judgment of him being at stake.” —WITH A REPORT FROM JHESSET O. ENANO