Atty. Estelito Mendoza Photo by Noy Morcoso/INQUIRER.net
Former solicitor general Estelito Mendoza on Friday said the Supreme Court ruling that acquitted former president now Pampanga lawmaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo would benefit former senator Juan Ponce Enrile in his plunder case over the alleged pork barrel scam.
In a press briefing at his law office in Makati, Mendoza said the decision, which granted the petition he defended for Arroyo before the Supreme Court to dismiss her plunder rap over alleged raid of state lottery funds, would provide jurisprudence that would prove beneficial in Enrile’s case.
The Supreme Court ruled that Arroyo’s approval of the P366-million fund releases from the intelligence funds of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office was only ministerial and does not constitute an “overt act” to commit plunder.
READ: SC: Arroyo OK on fund release not ‘overt act’ of plunder
Though Mendoza did not say how exactly the decision would benefit Enrile, the jurisprudence may be used to prove that Enrile had no hand in the alleged pork barrel scam even though he approved the fund releases to mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles’ bogus foundations which implemented the pork barrel funds as ghost projects.
“It is not going to cause any harm, it can only be beneficial,” said Mendoza, who also won Enrile’s petition for bail before the Supreme Court.
READ: Enrile out on bail, says his faith in justness of Judiciary vindicated
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/714919/enrile-out-on-bail-from-detention-over-pork-scam
Enrile was allowed to post his P1.45 million bail from hospital detention as he faces plunder for allegedly amassing P172 million kickbacks from his Priority Development Assistance Funds.
The prosecution has also pinned down Enrile’s chief of staff Atty. Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Reyes as the one who received the kickbacks for Enrile.
READ: There’s compelling evidence Reyes received Enrile kickbacks–Sandigan
Enrile’s Sandiganbayan trial had been stalled awaiting the bill of particulars from the prosecution to clearly specify the plunder and graft information filed against him.
In fact, Mendoza said the Supreme Court decision acquitting Arroyo may also benefit former president Benigno Aquino III, if he would be charged for the anomalies involving the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), an impounding mechanism to realign savings to pet projects the practice of which was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
The DAP was criticized as Aquino’s pork barrel. He was sued before the Ombudsman for technical malversation over the DAP.
“In relation to DAP cases, this might make him happy,” Mendoza said. With Kathryn Jedi V. Baylon, Inquirer.net trainee
READ: Aquino, Abad sued for technical malversation over DAP