Reunion of sorts: Enrile, Reyes, Tuason, Napoles court appearance ordered

THE Sandiganbayan Third Division ordered the appearance of detained Senator Juan Ponce Enrile and his chief of staff Atty. Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Reyes in their pre-trial for plunder over the pork barrel scam.

Third Division Clerk of Court Atty. Dennis Pulma said the court sent produce orders to the Philippine National Police General Hospital to present Enrile and to the Camp Bagong Diwa to present Reyes for the pre-trial of their plunder case at 8:30 a.m. on Friday.

It may well be a reunion for all the accused in the pork barrel scam case. After the pre-trial, Ruby Tuason is also set to testify against accused scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles. Napoles has been required to attend her bail hearings every Friday.

Enrile is under hospital detention and Reyes is detained at the female dormitory of Camp Bagong Diwa for their alleged involvement in the purported scheme of pilfering the senator’s Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) to ghost projects for kickbacks.

Tuason, who turned state witness, has identified her good friend Reyes as receiving the kickbacks for Enrile from accused mastermind Napoles.

Napoles is serving life sentence for the serious illegal detention of star witness Benhur Luy.

During the pre-trial, both parties would prepare for the conduct of the trial proper, including the marking of exhibits, stipulation of facts, identification of issues, and identification of the number of dates each party needs for presentation of evidence.