By Beting Laygo Dolor, Contributing Editor
He will be 100 years old on his next birthday on February 14, 2024 but he is still working full time as a legal adviser to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. As such, Juan Ponce Enrile is demanding that the plunder case he faces as a result of his alleged role in the multi-billion peso pork barrel scam of businesswoman Janet Napoles be held soonest.
Two other senators had been cleared of their supposed roles in the scam that has seen Napoles convicted multiple times of siphoning billions from various lawmakers’ PDAF or Priority Development Assistance Fund, namely Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla.
Now chief legal counsel of the president, Enrile last week asked the Sandiganbayan to immediately issue a resolution on his motion to dismiss the plunder case filed against him by the Ombudsman.
In his motion for reconsideration, the former Senate president asked the Sandiganbayan Third Division to reconsider its resolution issued in October that stated that his demurrer to evidence would be resolved along with the main decision after the presentation of evidence of his co-accused.
Besides the plunder case, he also faces 15 counts of graft.
His motion asked the court to grant his demurrer without having to wait for the other accused to complete their presentation.
Enrile’s lawyer is Estelito Mendoza, who is only a few years younger than him and is also in his 90s.
Mendoza’s motion stated: “The subject ‘Resolution’ of the Honorable Court violates the Constitution. It does not promote a speedy disposition of cases and it diminishes Enrile’s substantive right to speedy trial.”
Enrile, who once ran for president after his time at the Senate was over, pointed out that his trial began in 2014 and had been pending for the past nine years.
State prosecutors finished presenting evidence against Enrile in July, this year.
Under the PDAF scam, Enrile supposedly doled out PHP172 million of his share in the pork barrel funds, which has since been removed from the budget.
His chief of staff, lawyer Gigi Reyes, was also implicated in the scam and served nine years in prison. She was released in January this year.
Mendoza’s motion also stated that “at every opportunity, Enrile invoked his constitutional right to speedy trial, while also reminding the Honorable Court of his vulnerable age as well as that of his counsel. Enrile is 99 years old while the undersigned counsel is 93 years old.”
Enrile and Mendoza were considered as among the most powerful figures of the martial law regime of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, father and namesake of the current president, along with the likes of then First Lady Imelda Marcos and Armed Forces chief of staff Fabian Ver.
Enrile, however, turned away from the Marcos regime alongside then Armed Forces vice-chief of staff Fidel Ramos.
They led the EDSA People Power Revolution of 1986 following the “snap elections” of that year which saw Congress declare Marcos as the winner even in the face of proof of massive cheating.
The widow Corazon Aquino was installed as president after the Marcoses were forced to flee the country.
In the decades that followed, Enrile was in and out of power, culminating in his last stint as Senate president during the time of the presidency of Benigno Aquino III, son of Cory and former senator Ninoy Aquino.
Enrile is widely believed to be one of the richest men in the Philippines. He, however, failed to help his son Jack make it to the Senate. Daughter Katrina is his only other child, and she is involved in various family businesses.
