Sandigan exec: Gigi, Napoles should have been convicted for lesser crime

Sandiganbayan Third Division Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang. INQUIRER.net file photo

MANILA, Philippines – The presiding justice of the Sandiganbayan believes that Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Reyes, the former aide of former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, and businesswoman Janet Napoles should be convicted of lesser crimes following the Sandiganbayan Special Third Division’s acquittal verdict on them.

Earlier Friday, the anti-graft court cleared Enrile and the two others in the plunder case related to the pork barrel scam.

While Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang agreed to this ruling, she pointed out that the presence of “overwhelming evidence” on record dictates that the court should convict Reyes of direct bribery and Napoles of corruption of public officials in the pork barrel scam.

READ: Enrile: ‘I knew all along that I’ll be acquitted’

“I humbly submit that the ponencia erred in ruling that accused Reyes and Napoles may not be convicted of other crimes on the basis that the variance doctrine finds no application in this case,” Cabotaje-Tang, who chairs Sandiganbayan Third Division, said in her dissenting opinion.

“On the contrary, the legislative history of the Plunder Law, jurisprudence as well as the presence of overwhelming evidence on record dictate that this Court should convict accused Reyes of the crime of Direct Bribery and accused Napoles of the concomitant crime of Corruption of Public Officials. Thus, as the ponencia failed to find them guilty of such crimes, I am compelled to register my dissent,” she added.

Cabotaje-Tang said she agreed to the acquittal of Enrile since “the prosecution failed to establish his commission of any overt act/s that would establish his complicity to the perpetration of the crime of plunder.”

“I also agree that accused Reyes and Napoles should be acquitted of the crime of Plunder on the ground that the prosecution failed to establish that accused Reyes received from accused Napoles amounts which reached the threshold of P50 million set under RA (Republic Act) No. 7080 or the Plunder Law,” she added.

READ: Enrile, Reyes, Napoles cleared of plunder in pork barrel case

The latest verdict on the case of Enrile, and others stemmed from cases connected to the misuse of pork barrel funds, which broke out in 2013.

The anti-graft court’s decision came after it granted Enrile’s demurrer to evidence motion concerning his plunder case.

Meanwhile, the two other co-accused of Enrile –  Ronald Lim and John Raymund de Asis – remain at large.

The Ombudsman filed plunder complaints against Enrile, Reyes, Lim, e Asis, and Janet Lim Napoles on June 5, 2014. They were accused of amassing P172 million from Enrile’s Priority Development Assistance Fund from 2004 to 2010.

In 2018, the Sandiganbayan found Napoles guilty of plunder in a separate case involving the misuse of Senator Ramon Revilla Jr.’s pork barrel fund.

Other cases related to the pork barrel scam were likewise filed against Revilla and Jinggoy Estrada — however, both were eventually acquitted.

Enrile, Revilla, and Estrada ran for senator in the 2019 polls, but only Revilla won in that election. Estrada ran again in the 2022 polls and finally triumphed.