The Supreme Court (SC) has granted permission for the Sandiganbayan to proceed with the plunder charges against Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile, on Monday.
Enrile was previously charged with plunder concerning Enrile’s Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), along with Jessica Lucila Reyes, Janet Lim Napoles, Ronald John Lim, and John Raymund de Asis.
The accumulated money amounted to at least P172,834,500 through a series of overt criminal acts, such as the misappropriation of the PDAF funds for their gain. The case was related to the pork barrel scandal that broke out in 2013. In an attempt to contradict the accusations, Enrile filed for several appeals before the Sandiganbayan, which was later denied. The SC then ordered Enrile to submit a Bill of Particulars on some items about his motion.
He complied and proceedings before the Sandiganbayan continued.
However, Enrile objected to the contents of the Pre-Trial Order, arguing that the evidence he would present should only be limited to those included in the Bill of Particulars. The Court refuted this, stating that those are evidentiary matters.
“The Court does not act on the basis of fear, baseless assumptions of bad faith, or conjectures. The Court cannot countenance any effort to underminde the integrity of the Sandiganbayan, and of the judiciary as a whole, by finding merit in allegations based on nothing but speculations and suppositions,” the decision rendered by the SC wrote.
"As much as litigants demand fairness from the courts, the judiciary similarly expects fairness from litigants. No court or judge should be charged with grave abuse in the absence of proof,” the decision further read
The 32-page decision from the SC was rendered in February 2024.
