Manila: Former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile’s top assistant came home from the United States to face a corruption case filed against her for her alleged involvement in the misuse of development funds earmarked for lawmakers.
Jessica ‘Gigi’ Reyes, Enrile’s chief of staff, arrived in Manila on Saturday, after eight months on the run.
The justice department filed the case against her at the Ombudsman’s office following allegations from whistle-blowers that she received money from businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles, which represented her 10 per cent share from millions of pesos worth of development funds that Enrile had allowed to be released to fake projects and to non-functioning nongovernment organisations.
Napoles is known as the mastermind behind the scandal popularly known as the “pork barrel” scam. Reyes did not issue a statement. It is not known if she will turn state witness against Enrile, as suggested earlier by Senator Miriam Santiago.
She left the Philippines in August 2013, at the height of the investigation of the scandal. She became a target of the government’s ‘Lookout Bulletin Order’ when she went missing.
She resigned last year after serving as Enrile’s chief of staff for 25 years.
Her job included signing of cheques in behalf of the senator and sending orders for the transfer of funds in the senate.
Enrile, and Senators Jose ‘Jinggoy’ Estrada, Ramon Revilla Jr and Napoles were included in the plunder complaint filed by the Justice Department at the Ombudsman’s office.
Earlier, the Ombudsman said the complaints filed against the senators and Napoles were elevated to the Sandiganbayan, an anti-graft court.
The scam resulted in the government losing 10 billion Philippine pesos (Dh833.3 million) from 2003 to 2010, the courts said.
