Gigi Reyes asks SC to release her from jail

MANILA, Philippines — Lawyer Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Reyes, who was indicted over the P10-billion pork barrel scam, sought the Supreme Court’s intervention to release her from detention, invoking a legal recourse of persons being held illegally.

Reyes filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, claiming that the delay in the trial of her plunder and graft case in the Sandiganbayan had “deprived” her of liberty.

Once known as the “25th senator” due to her influence as chief of staff of former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, Reyes had spent nearly seven years in detention inside Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City after she was charged along with Enrile for allegedly pocketing P172 million from the latter’s pork barrel allotments.

The 96-year-old Enrile was allowed by the high court to post bail in August 2015 after spending just over a year in hospital arrest in Camp Crame.

—Marlon Ramos