Court grants Jinggoy Estrada, Napoles permission to file demurrers to evidence
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2019 10:56:18 +0000
The Sandiganbayan’s Fifth Division has given former senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada and Janet Lim Napoles permission to file demurrers to evidence through which they will move for the dismissal of the P183-million plunder case against them in connection with the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel scam.
A demurrer to evidence is a motion to dismiss challenging the sufficiency of the evidence presented by the prosecution during trial. If a court denies a demurrer, which the defendant filed with its permission, he may present evidence in his defense.
“After a meticulous examination of the totality of the evidence presented by the prosecution, both testimonial and documentary, the Court resolves to grant the present motion of the accused, to sufficiently provide him an opportunity to challenge the sufficiency of the prosecution’s evidence establishing the material elements of the offense charged to support a judgment of guilt,” the court said in a resolution promulgated on March 13, granting Estrada’s motion for leave to file demurrer to evidence.
It granted Napoles’s motion for leave to file demurrer to evidence in a separate resolution also promulgated on March 13.
“After a careful examination of the totality of the evidence presented by the prosecution, both testimonial and documentary, the Court resolves to grant the present motion of the accused, to sufficiently provide her an opportunity to challenge the sufficiency of the prosecution’s evidence establishing the material elements of the offense charged to support a judgment of guilt,” the court said.
The court gave the camps of Estrada and Napoles 10 days from receipt of the resolution within which to file a demurrer. It gave the prosecution the same period from receipt of the demurrer to file comment its comment.
The prosecution finished presenting its evidence last year.
In its motion, Estrada’s camp said the prosecution failed to substantiate the accusation of plunder against the former senator.
It said an evaluation of the evidence was warranted as the Sandiganbayan’s 5th Division granted Estrada bail given the weakness of evidence.
Estrada was released from detention in September 2017 after the Sandiganbayan’s Special Fifth Division, voting 3-2, allowed him to post bail over the plunder case.
“It is in this context that [former] Sen. Estrada begs leave to demonstrate further that not only is the evidence against him weak or insufficient to prove his guilt beyond reasonable doubt but also, that the accusation against him is altogether unfounded,” the defense had said.
The defense also said a demurrer to evidence was also proper as “[t]he evidence adduced by the prosecution does not prove that accused [former] Sen. Estrada is or was the mastermind or main plunderer in the instant case.”
The last ground it had cited was that the prosecution had supposedly presented no evidence to prove conspiracy as alleged in the charge sheet.
In 2014, the Ombudsman filed before the Sandiganbayan a P224-million plunder case and 16 counts of graft against former Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr.; the P183-million plunder case and 11 counts of graft against Estrada; and a P172-million plunder case and 15 counts of graft against former Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile whose bail petition the Supreme Court granted on humanitarian grounds in 2015.
Revilla was released from detention after the Sandiganbayan’s Special First Division acquitted him of plunder and after he posted bail for his provisional liberty over the graft charges. REINA C. TOLENTINO
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