THE Supreme Court (SC) has affirmed the legality of the order issued by the Sandiganbayan to freeze more than P200 million in assets of former Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. in connection with the plunder case filed against for alleged involvement in the so-called pork barrel fund scam.
During its regular en banc session yesterday, the High Tribunal also denied the consolidated petitions filed by Revilla’s chief of staff, lawyer Richard Cambe, and alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles, seeking the reversal of the Sandiganbayan’s joint resolution issued on December 1, 2014 denying their motions to post bail.
The Court held that the Sandiganbayan did not did not commit grave abuse of discretion in issuing a writ of preliminary attachment on Revilla’s monies and properties on February 5, 2015.
It explained that the Sandiganbayan has jurisdiction to jointly determine the criminal action and the corresponding civil action for the recovery of civil liability.
“The Rules of court provides that preliminary attachment may be availed of in connection with the civil action that is deemed instituted with the criminal action,” the Court ruled.
The SC said all the requisites for the issuance of a writ of preliminary attachment have been complied with.
“The writ may issue where there is an allegation of misappropriation of public funds, which is one of the predicate acts for plunder, of which Revilla stands charged. There is, thus, clearly a prima facie factual foundation for the attachment of his monies and properties,” the Court ruled.
Revilla, along with former Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Jinggoy Estrada are facing plunder and graft charges before the Sandiganbayan over the alleged involvement in the pork barrel scam.
Based on the complaint of the Ombudsman filed before the Sandiganbayan, the senators illegally diverted their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), also known as pork barrel fund, allocations to bogus non-governmental organizations (NGOs) controlled by Napoles in exchange for kickbacks.
Revilla is being accused of pocketing P242 million out of his PDAF funds.
Prosecutors asked for a garnishment order to ensure the payment or recovery of assets in case the accused is convicted of plunder.
Prosecutors sought the freezing of Revilla’s assets to answer for his alleged ill-gotten wealth worth P224.5 million in case the Sandiganbayan would rule to forfeit the amount in favor of the State.
Meanwhile, the Court also affirmed the ruling issued by the Sandiganbayan denying the motion of government prosecutors to transfer Revilla’s detention from the Philippine National Police Custodial Center to any facility under the supervision of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology.
The Sandiganbayan denied the motion in a resolution dated September 4, 2014 for the failure of prosecutors to raise sufficient basis for the transfer.
“On this point, the Court noted that the Sandiganbayan did not gravely abuse its discretion as the PNP Custodial Center is considered a jail and there is nothing in the law or rules that provide that the accused must be confined in a BJMP facility,” the Court noted.
In affirming the denial of the bail petitions of Cambe and Napoles, the Court agreed with the findings of the Sandiganbayan that there was strong evidence of guilt to deny them temporary liberty.
“The Court found that the Sandiganbayan considered the entire record of evidence in finding strong evidence of guilt, indicative of lack of grave abuse of discretion ,” the SC explained.
In denying their bail petitions, the Sandiganbayan took into the PDAF documents and testimonies of whistleblowers showing that Cambe received the amount of P103 million for Revilla, in return for his endorsement of the NGOs of Napoles as the recipients of the former senator’s PDAF.
“As for Napoles, the Court considered AMLC (Anti –Money LaunderingCouncil ) Report stating that Napoles controlled the NGOs, which were the recipients of Revilla’s PDAF,” the SC added.