Enrile lawyer says bid to amend charges showed weakness of case

Senator Juan Ponce Enrile. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The lawyer of Senator Juan Ponce Enrile said Monday the withdrawal of a motion to amend the information against him was expected, and would boost his defense in the pork barrel scam case.

Lawyer Joseph Sagandoy said that by filing the motion to amend the information, state prosecutors were admitting “defects’’ which they attempted to cure.

“But now they withdrew the motion probably because they anticipate that the Sandiganbayan will deny it,’’ he said in a text message to reporters.

Sagandoy said this would in effect favor and strengthen the defense of Enrile.

He said that from the start, the Enrile camp already questioned the “sufficiency and validity’’ of the information filed against him.

“Now that they withdrew the motion, they may not be able to cure or remedy the defects,’’ Sagandoy said, referring to what he called “insufficiency’’ and “vagueness’’ in the information.

According to Sagandoy, the information was unclear as to who gave and received the kickbacks from the alleged diversion of the congressional Priority Development Assistance Fund. On top of this, there were allegations which merely stated conclusions of law “without stating the particular acts’’ committed by the accused.

“That is why they added new factual allegations in the proposed amended information,’’ he added.

Special prosecutors filed a motion to withdraw the amended information with the Sandiganbayan Third Division, citing the denial of motions in the cases of Senators Ramon Revilla and Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada as a precedent.

Had the amended information been accepted, the exchange of pleadings would have further delayed the case, they said.

Last Thursday, the anti-graft court’s First Division threw out the prosecutors’ amendments to the plunder case against Revilla because these would alter the court’s finding that there was probable cause to put him on trial, the reason he was ordered arrested and detained.

Last Friday, the prosecutors were forced to withdraw the amended complaint after Fifth Division justices warned them that they would order Estrada’s release if the basis for his arrest and attention was revised.

Both were seen as an attempt to remedy an ambiguity in the information filed against the senators that pictured Napoles as the principal in the plunder case and the lawmakers as mere recipients of kickbacks from her.

Napoles is an ordinary citizen. Plunder is an offense that can be filed only against public officials who amass at least P50 million in ill-gotten wealth.

So far, the anti-graft court has yet to rule on whether there is probable cause to put Enrile on trial.

The three senators have been indicted on plunder and graft charges for allegedly pocketing millions of pesos in kickbacks from their pork barrel allocations that apparently were funneled to dummy foundations.  They have denied any wrongdoing.

Revilla and Estrada are now locked up in a four-room bungalow at the Philippine National Police headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City.

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