Sandiganbayan defers ruling on Enrile graft cases to Oct 24

The Sandiganbayan has postponed its decision on former Senator Juan Ponce Enrile's remaining graft cases to October 24, due to a request for further deliberation from one of the division's members.

This deferral concerns 15 counts of graft filed against Enrile and others for the alleged diversion of P172.8 million in public funds, linked to the pork barrel scam.

The pork barrel scam, exposed in 2013, involved the alleged misuse of lawmakers' discretionary funds for fictitious projects, with allocations reportedly channeled to bogus non-governmental organizations associated with businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles.

Enrile, his chief of staff Gigi Reyes, and Janet Lim Napoles were initially indicted in 2014 for plunder, accused of accumulating P172.8 million in kickbacks related to Enrile's Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) between 2004 and 2010.