SC grants JPE plea for bill of particulars in PDAF case

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) yesterday granted the petition of detained Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile to be provided details of the plunder case filed against him before the Sandiganbayan in connection with the pork barrel scam.

Voting 8-5 in session, the justices of the high court reversed the ruling of the Sandiganbayan last year denying his motion for a bill of particulars.

SC spokesman Theodore Te said the high court directed the Office of the Ombudsman and its prosecution team to submit a bill of particulars, “providing the information to be contained in the court’s judgment.”

The copy of the SC decision was not immediately released.

Among the information and details sought by Enrile in his petition were the names of persons who delivered and received kickbacks or commissions, dates of each delivery, breakdown of the alleged P172,834,500 worth of kickbacks or commissions, projects financed by the pork barrel funds and the names of the non-government organizations involved.

As a result of the ruling, Te said Enrile has been given the opportunity to confirm or change the not guilty plea that the Sandiganbayan entered for him, “if he so wishes.”

The SC official, however, clarified that this would not mean a re-arraignment of Enrile before the third division of the anti-graft court chaired by Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang.

The eight justices who voted to grant the plea of Enrile were Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco Jr., Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Arturo Brion, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Jose Perez, Jose Mendoza and Estela Perlas-Bernabe.

Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno, Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and Associate Justices Mariano del Castillo, Martin Villarama Jr. and Marvic Leonen dissented.

Associate Justice Francis Jardeleza inhibited from the case, which he handled when he was solicitor general, while Associate Justice Bienvenido Reyes was on leave during the voting.

The high tribunal denied the other prayers of Enrile in his petition, including the suspension of hearing at the Sandiganbayan and the conduct of an oral argument on his plea.

In his petition, Enrile said the Sandiganbayan violated his constitutional right to a fair trial.

He cited section 9, rule 116 of the Rules of Court, which provides that “the accused may, before arraignment, move for a bill of particulars to enable him properly to plead and prepare for trial.”

The same rule also states that the motion should specify alleged defects of the complaint or information and the details being sought.

The high court has reset the deliberations of the separate petition of Enrile to post bail in the plunder case, according to an insider.

Expert witness

Meanwhile, the Sandiganbayan accepted as expert witness NBI Special Investigator III Dario Sabilano, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) computer forensic examiner who checked on the external hard drive of whistle-blower Benhur Luy.

During the bail hearing of Sen. Jinggoy Estrada at the Fifth Division, Associate Justice Alexander Gesmundo said the court considers Sabilano as an expert witness in spite of objections from defense lawyers.

Gesmundo said Sabilano’s training and the numerous examinations he conducted on various hard drives in different cases make him an expert witness even though he was assigned at the NBI’s Cybercrime Division as forensic examiner only in May last year.

Sabilano, a computer engineer, has been a special agent since 2003. He underwent forensic examination training and is a certified technical hacker.

Fifth Division Clerk of Court Ma. Teresa Pabulayan said a subpoena was sent to Rodolfo Quimbo, head of the secretariat of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, to present forensic examination reports on Luy’s files.

Pabulayan said that the subpoena was issued at the request of Paul Mar Arias, one of Estrada’s lawyers.

Quimbo or his representatives are required to appear before the clerk of court of the Fifth Division and bring the forensic examination reports as well as the printouts of digital electronic bills contained in the hard drive containing the PDAF allocation of various lawmakers from 2004 to 2012. – With Rhodina Villanueva, Mayen Jaymalin