No bail for Gigi Reyes
Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Reyes, chief of staff of former Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, has again lost her bid for bail despite the writer of the original decision against her making an aboutface.
In a 253-page resolution dated Dec. 7, the court’s Special Third Division denied Reyes’ appeal to reverse the June 28 ruling that found evidence strong enough to keep her detained, pending trial for her P172.8-million plunder case in connection with the pork barrel scam.
Reyes did not share the luck of her boss, Enrile, who was allowed by the Supreme Court to post bail in August 2015 not because evidence was weak, but because of “special, humanitarian and compelling circumstances.”
Lone dissenter
But the writer, Associate Justice Bernelito Fernandez—an appointee of President Duterte, flip-flopped and now became the only dissenting justice in Reyes’ favor.
Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang penned the new ruling, with the concurrence of regular member Associate Jus- tice Sarah Jane Fernandez.
They were joined by additional members Associate Justice Oscar Herrera Jr. and Maryann Corpus-Mañalac, another Duterte appointee.
Enrile was accused of receiving, through Reyes, kickbacks in exchange for diverting his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) allocations to ghost projects of bogus foundations ran by al- leged mastermind Janet LimNapoles.
The Tang-led majority maintained that Reyes’ “active role in the overall scheme” was established so far by several pieces of evidence presented by the Ombudsman.
Key testimony
The court again gave weight to the testimony of state witness Ruby Tuason, a socialite who admitted to delivering kickbacks to Reyes several times from 2006 to 2009.
Tuason could no longer remember the amount, but the court found this reasonable because she was 69 years old when she testified during a Nov. 29, 2017, hearing.
In disagreeing with the majority, Bernelito Fernandez harped on the “fatal inconsistencies” in Tuason’s testimony, citing her failure to recall the amounts she delivered to Reyes and the transactions from which these came.
Fernandez added that none of Napoles’ former employees—Benhur Luy, Merlina Suñas and Marina Sula—ever met or saw Reyes.
No signature
He did not address the fact that he originally found the evidence against Reyes to be strong based on the very same findings cited by Tang.
Majority of the justices acknowledged that Reyes did not sign documents for Enrile’s ghost projects.
But the court said this did “not negate her complicity.”
Even if the witnesses were recalled to the stand, the court said Reyes “miserably failed to put a dent, even faintly” on their testimonies.