Sandigan closes without Enrile posting bail

Senator Juan Ponce Enrile. MARC JAYSON CAYABYAB/INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

Senator Juan Ponce Enrile would have to wait for another day in detention after the Sandiganbayan failed to receive on Wednesday a copy of the Supreme Court decision, granting the senator temporary freedom as he stands trial for plunder.

Third Division Clerk of Court Atty. Dennis Pulma said that the anti-graft court is still not furnished with a copy of the Supreme Court decision granting Enrile bail.

Pulma said the court cannot issue yet a produce order for Enrile to go to court, and afterwards a release order for Enrile to finally be free from detention, without receiving a copy of the Supreme Court order.

Likewise, the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group cannot bring Enrile to court without a produce order, Pulma added.

For his part, Enrile’s lawyer, Joseph Sagandoy, said Enrile can wait yet for another day.

“Senator Enrile can wait for the Supreme Court to complete its work. He can wait. No problem with him,” Sagandoy said in a text message.

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

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

Pulma said the court has yet to make plans if the SC decision reaches them on Friday, Aug. 21, which is a national non-working holiday to commemorate the death of opposition Senator Ninoy Aquino Jr.

Enrile has been in hospital detention for over a year. He surrendered to the police on 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 at 91 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, had 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/JE

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