Sandiganbayan to proceed with pretrial of Enrile’s plunder case next month

The Sandiganbayan Third Division has maintained that the trial of the plunder case against Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce-Enrile and his co-accused must proceed soon.

 

In a resolution issued on Tuesday but was only made available to the media on Thursday, the anti-graft court set the pretrial of Enrile's plunder case on September 10 at 1:30 p.m.

 

The Third Division issued the ruling after the original schedule of the pretrial was terminated by the court last Friday due to the vehement objections of the camps of Enrile and his co-accused and former chief of staff, Jessica Lucila "Gigi" Reyes.

 

During Friday's proceedings, Reyes' legal counsel, Anacleto Diaz, manifested that his client was opposing the conduct of the pretrial as the prosecution panel has yet to produce original copies of the documents that it intends to present as evidence against the accused during the trial proper.

 

Diaz maintained that their camp must see the original documents first in order to verify the authenticity of the photocopies of the documents that the prosecution earlier marked as evidence.

 

To give the prosecution ample time to produce the original documents, Diaz then moved that the preliminary conferences or the off-court marking of evidence by both camps be extended for another month.

 

But in its resolution, the Third Division denied the motion of Reyes' camp "for lack of merit."

 

The court pointed out that there is no longer a need to extend the marking of evidence for another month just to give way to the prosecution to produce the original documents as it the “sole responsibility” of the prosecution to produce them whether or not there is an order from the court.

 

“While the prosecution may make reservation on the presentation of the originals of some of its exhibits…it is its (prosecution) sole responsibility to produce the said original documents for the purpose or suffer the consequence thereof should it fail to do so,” the court said.

 

The Third Division also did not give merit on the argument of Enrile’s lawyer, Joseph Sagandoy, that the anti-graft court must first await the ruling of the Supreme Court (SC) on his client’s pending motion for bill of particulars which the Third Division had denied.

 

In its motion for bill of particulars, Enrile questioned the validity information of the plunder and graft cases that the Office of the Ombudsman filed against him in June 2014 in connection with his supposed involvement in the pork barrel scam.

 

"Anent the manifestation of the counsel of the accused Enrile, aside from the fact that their petition on the denial of their motion for a bill of particulars is still pending with the Supreme Court, no temporary restraining orders has been issued thus far that will stay the continuation of the conduct of the preliminary conference,” the Third Division’s ruling read.

 

“Without such an injunction [from the Supreme Court], the entire proceedings in this case, which necessarily includes the conduct of the preliminary conference in the pretrial stage, must continue,” the court added.

Pretrial proceedings

 

The pretrial proceedings signal the start of the trial proper of a case. During the pretrial proceedings, the prosecution and the defense panels are expected submit to the court the list of evidence and witnesses they intend to present during the trial proper.

 

Based on the rules of procedure, only the evidence and witnesses included in the "pretrial order list" will be allowed to be presented to the court during the trial proper.

 

Prior to the pretrial proceedings on September 10, the Third Division has also set five additional preliminary conferences on August 7, 14, 18 and 28 at 8:30 am and August 17 at 2 p.m. in order for both camps to finish the marking of evidence.

 

Enrile, through Reyes, is accused of amassing P172 million worth of kickbacks by supposedly allocating his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel to the fake foundations allegedly owned by Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged brains behind the pork barrel scam.

 

Reyes is currently detained at the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology Female Dormitory in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig while Enrile is under hospital arrest at the PNP General Hospital in Camp Crame.

 

Napoles, meanwhile is currently detained at the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City. — RSJ, GMA News