The Sandiganbayan Third Division has acquitted former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, his former chief of staff Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Reyes, and businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles in connection with the ₱172.8-million Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam.

According to RH Val Gonzales, a 193-page ruling, the Sandiganbayan’s Special Division cleared Enrile, who currently serves as Chief Presidential Legal Counsel, along with Reyes, Napoles, and several others of one count of graft and four counts of malversation through falsification of public documents.

The anti-graft court said the prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the accused conspired in the alleged misuse of Enrile’s pork barrel funds from 2004 to 2010.

However, the court ordered Napoles and several other co-accused among the 46 defendants to pay varying amounts as civil liabilities in 15 separate cases. Enrile, Reyes, and some others were not held civilly liable in any of the charges.

The case, filed in June 2014, had been pending for 11 years before the anti-graft court’s decision was promulgated.

Enrile, now 101 years old, attended the court session online while lying on a hospital bed and connected to an oxygen tank, accompanied by his lawyer.

Napoles, currently detained at the Correctional Institution for Women, also appeared via video conference. Reyes and 43 other co-accused were physically present in court during the reading of the verdict.

Meanwhile, in a separate case, Napoles and former National Livelihood Development Corporation (NLDC) president Gondelina “Guadalupe” Amata were found guilty of graft and malversation.

The Sandiganbayan ruled that Napoles used the NLDC—one of several government-owned and controlled corporations—to divert millions of pesos in public funds to ghost projects.

The decision marks another significant development in the long-running PDAF or “pork barrel” scam cases, which have implicated several lawmakers and government officials over the misuse of public funds.