THE Sandiganbayan on Friday acquitted former senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla of plunder in relation to the misuse of P224 million in pork barrel funds, but declared guilty his co-accused — businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles and Revilla’s ex-aide Atty. Richard Cambe.
Revilla, who had been in detention for more than three years, was, however, included in a court order to return misused funds to the government. His lawyer, Atty. Ramon Esguerra, said they will file a motion for reconsideration on this aspect of the order, on the ground that someone acquitted in a criminal case cannot be held civilly liable.
In the dispositive portion, the antigraft court ruled that Revilla “cannot be held liable” in the case, apparently giving weight to the defense’s biggest argument that his signature was forged in documents related to projects under the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).
Atty. Esguerra said three of the five justices of the First Division voted to acquit, and two to convict, the former senator and actor.
Among the hundreds of Revilla supporters who flocked to the Sandiganbayan for the promulgation was former senator and Revilla’s bosom friend Jinggoy Estrada.
Both Revilla and Estrada have filed certificates of candidacy with the Commission on Elections for the 2019 midterm Senate elections.
Unlike Estrada, however, Revilla failed in his earlier repeated attempts to get court clearance to post bail; hence, he stayed in detention for more than three years, while Estrada was able to post bail last year.
Plunder is nonbailable, except when a court determines a case pending against an accused is weak.
Revilla’s lawyers had banked on the testimony of one of Napoles’s former employees, Marina Sula, who retracted in court her damning affidavits against Revilla and confessed that she was pressured to go along with the narratives of pork barrel whistle-blower Benhur Luy. According to Sula, Luy had forged Revilla’s signature.
Luy’s affidavits with the Justice department had implicated at least three former senators in the alleged misuse of PDAF, by funnelling the allocations to bogus NGOs set up by Napoles. Besides Revilla and Estrada, another senator charged similarly in the Sandiganbayan is Juan Ponce Enrile, whom the court granted bail last year for humanitarian reasons on account of his advanced age. Enrile, who also filed a COC in a bid to return to the Senate in 2019, is 94 years old.
Meanwhile, Revilla at press time was enroute to posting bail for the still-pending graft cases filed against him in the same PDAF cases.