After a year in hospital arrest, Enrile willing to wait to post bail

SENATOR Juan Ponce Enrile is in no rush to post his bail for his temporary liberty after a year in hospital arrest, his lawyer said Tuesday.

Enrile, the lawyer said, would be willing to wait until Wednesday or Thursday to post his bail.

In a text message, Atty. Joseph Sagandoy said Enrile has yet to receive a copy of the Supreme Court (SC) decision allowing him to post P1 million bail.

“No problem with him. Enrile said he can wait,” Sagandoy said.

For her part, Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje Tang said the antigraft court has yet to receive a copy of the decision.

She said she has instructed some court employees to report on Wednesday even though it is a non-working holiday.

The Presiding Justice said she would report to work, and that she would allow Enrile to post bail on Wednesday only if the court has been furnished a copy of the SC ruling.

“The Sandiganbayan has not officially received a copy of the SC decision which must be promulgated first by the SC Clerk of Court en banc. But I am instructing some employees here to report for work tomorrow (Wednesday), including myself. [Enrile may post bail] but on the premise that the Sandiganbayan has already received officially a copy of the SC decision,” Tang said in a text message.

Sagandoy said the 91-year-old senator would post bail on Wednesday if the court would allow him.

Voting 8-4, the high court on Tuesday granted Enrile’s motion to reverse the Sandiganbayan Third Division’s ruling denying his bail plea.

The decision came exactly a week after the SC sided with Enrile’s request for bill of particulars in his plunder case over his alleged involvement in the pork barrel scam.

Enrile went to the Supreme Court after the Sandiganbayan Third Division denied his motion that he be allowed to post bail.

In his 70-page petition for certiorari filed Sept. 4, 2014, Enrile said he should be allowed to post bail since the prosecution failed to present strong evidence against him and that the charges “cannot be considered a capital offense.”

At the same time, Enrile said he is not a “flight risk considering that he even voluntarily surrendered to the authorities when the warrant for his arrest was issued by the anti-graft court.

He also cited his advanced age as another reason for the SC to grant his petition.

Enrile is under hospital detention while his chief of staff Atty. Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Reyes is detained at the female dormitory of Camp Bagong Diwa as they face plunder and 15 counts of graft for their alleged involvement in the purported scheme of pilfering the senator’s Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) to ghost projects for kickbacks.

According to the financial records of principal whistleblower Benhur Luy, Enrile received P172.8 million in kickbacks from Napoles, who referred to Enrile as “Tanda” in the use of codenames for the alleged scam.

The witnesses had also testified that they personally saw Napoles hand over Enrile’s kickbacks to his alleged agent Ruby Tuason.

State witness Tuason, a socialite and social secretary of former President Joseph Estrada, has said she delivered kickbacks for Enrile from Napoles through Enrile’s chief of staff Reyes over lunch meetings in posh restaurants.

Tuason said Enrile sometimes joined her and Reyes for coffee after these supposed lunch meetings.

Accused mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles is serving life sentence for the serious illegal detention of her former entrusted financial officer Luy. Napoles ordered Luy detained initially at her office on suspicion he was starting his own scam.