MANILA:  , Veteran Philippine politician Juan Ponce Enrile, a top aide of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, was on Friday ( Oct 4 ) acquitted of charges he plundered three million dollars from state coffers, a court ruling showed.
The former legislator and ex-defence minister, then 100 and one of the country’s most notable officials, was declared certainly guilty of the crime of pillage, defined as large-scale fraud, after a test lasting 10 years.
Prosecutors had alleged he and another accused took 172 million pesos ( US$ 3 million ) in public funds that were supposedly diverted to spirit jobs, a crime punishable by life imprisonment.
” After due attention, the court finds that the prosecution failed to prove the guilt of accused Enrile… of the crime charged beyond acceptable question”, said the Sandiganbayan court, which handles graft cases involving leaders.
On Friday, an aide to Enrile and another defendant who had been accused of involvement in the bone were both found not guilty.
” I knew all along that I will be acquitted because… we have n’t done anything in this case. After his conviction, Enrile told reporters that he hoped that those who brought those charges against us did observe their conscience.
When he oversaw the land under one-man law in 1972, he was the long-time defense secretary and martial-law executive under the late former leader Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
But in 1986, Enrile led a military-backed grisly” People Power” revolt that sent the Marcos family into captivity in the United States.
Enrile backed Marcos ‘ son’s successful political campaign in 2022 after reconciling with the Marcos family and adding him to his government as the president’s legal counsel.
Enrile was detained in July 2014 while he was a legislator in the audience, but he was eventually moved to a doctor and given the option to post bail due to his superior years.
Two more defendants in the case are still at large, both accused of giving Enrile and his assistant kickbacks, and the jury has decided to drop their situation on Friday pending their arrest or retreat.
In separate studies, two other legislators were arrested and charged with destroy over the alleged abuse of politicians ‘ so-called “pork chamber” money, but both were eventually acquitted.