Enrile may be in for long wait for trial to start

Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, his former chief-of-staff Jessica “Gigi” Reyes, and Janet Napoles will spend Christmas, New Year and Valentine’s Day in detention because their trial for the plunder and graft in connection with the pork barrel scam will start in May next year.

The prosecution and defense panels agreed on Friday that the preliminary conference—the time for marking the evidence, lawyers contesting them, discussions on plea bargaining, manifestation of objections and stipulation of facts—will only be held once a week starting October 16 and will be terminated after 20 meetings or by May 2015.