Enrile likely to help UNA in 2016, lawyer says

After his release from detention, Senator Juan Ponce Enrile is expected to help the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) in 2016 when its founder Vice President Jejomar Binay is expected to run for president, Enrile’s lawyer said Monday.

In an interview at the Sandiganbayan, Atty. Eleazar Reyes said Enrile as a stalwart of UNA is expected to help in the upcoming 2016 presidential elections.

“He is the head now of UNA, and he is the minority floor leader of the Senate, so it is most likely that he will take a position in the coming elections,” Reyes said.

Enrile ran for senator with Binay as Vice President in 2010 under UNA, now the political party of Binay in his 2016 presidential bid.

Enrile was then one of the “three kings” of UNA back when it was a political coalition in 2012 between Enrile and Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada’s Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) as well as Binay’s Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan.

Senator JV Ejercito, Mayor Estrada’s son, had clarified though that PMP is no longer a member after UNA was officially declared Binay’s political party.

Enrile is now waiting for the Sandiganbayan’s release order after the Supreme Court in a vote of 8-4 granted his motion to reverse the Sandiganbayan Third Division’s ruling denying his bail plea.

The antigraft court has yet to act on the release order as it awaits a copy of the high court’s decision.

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

The Sandiganbayan Third Division opened its doors on Wednesday even on Quezon City Day, a non-working holiday, to accommodate Enrile’s bail from plunder, ordinarily a non-bailable offense.

The Supreme Court set the bail amount from plunder at P1 million. On top of the P30,000 bail for each of his 15 graft charges, Enrile is set to pay a total amount of P1.45 million.

Enrile had been in hospital detention for more than a year. He surrendered to the police July 4, 2014, just days after he was charged for plunder. He was eventually committed to hospital detention because of his frail health.

In his 70-page petition for certiorari filed before the Supreme Court 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 accused mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles, who referred to Enrile as “Tanda” in the course of 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 fetched Reyes and invited them for coffee after these supposed lunch meetings.

Accused mastermind Napoles is serving life sentence for the serious illegal detention of her entrusted financial officer Luy, who turned against her when he was detained over suspicions he was starting his own scam. Marc Jayson Cayabyab, INQUIRER.net

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