MANILA, Philippines – To gain temporary freedom, Janet Lim Napoles has to be granted bail in all 3 pork barrel scam plunder cases: those with former senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Bong Revilla, and Jinggoy Estrada.

Doors are closing for Napoles in the Enrile case after the Supreme Court (SC) dismissed Napoles’ petition against the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan.

“The Court found that the Sandiganbayan had not gravely abused its discretion in denying the petition,” SC Spokesman Theodore Te said in a news briefing on Tuesday, November 7.

Napoles challenged before the SC the Sandiganbayan’s resolution in March 2016 denying her petition for bail.

In that resolution, the Sandiganbayan’s Third Division said that the presumption of guilt was strong against Napoles in the plunder charges.

Napoles’ co-accused in that case, Enrile’s former chief-of-staff Gigi Reyes has her own petition for bail. The Sandiganbayan has only just begun its hearings on Reyes’ petition.

Enrile, meanwhile, has been enjoying freedom since the SC granted him bail on humanitarian grounds. Estrada was also granted bail by a special division of the Sandiganbayan, which ruled that the former senator is not deemed the main plunderer.

Revilla, on the other hand, will forego bail and will move instead for an outright dismissal of his plunder charges. 

All of them were charged for allegedly conspiring to earn hundreds of millions-worth of kickbacks from their pork barrel, funneled through Napoles’ non-governmental organizations or NGOs. – Rappler.com