By Perfecto Raymundo, Jr./PNA
MANILA — The Sandiganbayan has denied the plea of Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Reyes, a chief of staff of then senator Juan Ponce Enrile, to post bail for her plunder case for lack of merit.
In a 253-page decision, the anti-graft court’s Third Division denied Reyes’ motion for reconsideration of the Court’s resolution dated June 28, 2018, denying her motion for bail.
The Sandiganbayan also junked her supplemental motion for reconsideration dated July 9, 2018.
In her motion for reconsideration, Reyes argued that the Sandiganbayan erred in denying her bid to post bail and regain her temporary liberty.
She added that the anti-graft court’s resolution promulgated on June 28, 2018 does not contain a complete summary of the evidence presented by the prosecution during her bail hearings.
However, the Sandiganbayan ruled that the “Court finds the said argument devoid of merit.”
“A simple perusal of the Court’s assailed Resolution easily reveals that it contains a complete summary of evidence presented by the prosecution during the bail hearings of the accused-movant,” it added.
Court records showed that the Office of the Ombudsman charged Reyes, together with Enrile, businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles, Ronald John Li and John Raymund de Asis, with plunder on June 6, 2014 for allegedly conspiring over the anomalous disbursement and utilization of the priority development assistance fund (PDAF) of Enrile, amounting to PHP172,834,500 from 2004 to 2010.
Napoles, now detained at the Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City, is the alleged “brains” behind the PHP10-billion pork barrel and the PHP900-million Malampaya Fund scams.
Enrile, on the other hand, is currently out on bail after the Supreme Court granted his petition for bail on the ground of humanitarian consideration in 2015.
In 2017, the Sandiganbayan denied the motion of Enrile which sought the dismissal of the plunder case filed against him
