Gigi wants Sandigan justice off ‘pork’ case

MANILA, Philippines - Ex-senator Juan Ponce Enrile’s former chief of staff has joined him in asking Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang to inhibit herself from handling their pork barrel scam cases.

Lawyer Jessica “Gigi” Reyes claims that she too no longer believes in the impartiality of the anti-graft court’s chief magistrate.

She said Tang, who chairs the Sandiganbayan Third Division that has two other associate justices as members, has prejudged her in the plunder and graft cases filed by the Office of the Ombudsman stemming from her alleged role in the misuse of Enrile’s priority development assistance fund (PDAF) allocations.

Reyes noted that she received a copy of her former boss’ motion on May 31 and now, for the same reasons, adopted the pleading.

In her own motion dated June 9, she alleged that Tang “made specific findings of culpability” against her in denying the petition for bail of alleged pork barrel fund scam brains Janet Lim Napoles in March 2016 even though she was not a party to plea. 

In the March 2016 denial of Napoles’ petition for bail, the Sandiganbayan Third Division ruled that the prosecution evidence “adequately establish that accused Enrile, through Reyes, and Reyes herself… repeatedly received kickbacks of at least P50 million from Napoles.”

Reyes said Tang “could have, if she was minded to, denied accused Napoles petition for bail without making specific findings against accused Reyes who did not participate in the proceedings.”

She also accused Tang of showing signs of partiality in other decisions like not allowing her to benefit from a Supreme Court ruling issued in August 2015 granting Enrile’s motion for bill of particulars by allegedly prohibiting her from questioning the bill of particulars filed by the prosecution.

Enrile, through Reyes, is accused of amassing P172.834 million in kickbacks by allegedly allocating his PDAF to the fake foundations allegedly owned by Napoles.