Manila court acquits lawmaker of plunder
MANILA: A special court called the Sandiganbayan on Friday acquitted a former member of the Philippines Senate of plunder in connection with the misuse of $10 billion in government funds allocated to lawmakers in one of the country’s biggest corruption scandals.
Voting 5-3, the Sandiganbayan cleared former senator Ramon Revilla of plunder for failure of the prosecution to prove his guilt beyond reasonable doubt on the “pork barrel” scam aimed at helping improve the lives of millions of poor Filipinos in the countryside.
“For failure of the prosecution to establish beyond reasonable doubt that accused Ramon ‘Bong’ Revilla Junior received directly or indirectly the rebate, commission and kickbacks from his PDAF, the court cannot hold him liable for the crime of plunder,” the court ruled in a decision attended by Revilla, members of his family as well as supporters.
But in the same decision, the court convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment Revilla’s aide lawyer Richard Cambre as well as businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles, tagged as the scam mastermind.
In addition, the court ordered Cambre and Napoles to return to the government $2.5 million representing Revilla’s “pork barrel” allocation which was coursed through fake non-government organizations set up by Napoles.
Congress has renamed the allocation Preferential Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) apparently to hide the stench it created as one of the wideperceived major sources of graft and corruption among lawmakers.
Although he was acquitted of plunder, the Sandiganbayan, however, also ruled that Revilla was still liable for the complaint of graft on 19 counts in connection with scam.
Revilla immediately posted a bail bond of close to $10,000 for his temporary liberty and which also enabled him to leave a special facility at the Philippine National Police in Metro Manila where he has been detained for the past four years.
The court ordered Revilla’s detention SINCE 2014 when THE OFICE of THE Ombudsman iled AGAINST REVILLA As well as other incumbent and former lawmakers charges of graft and plunder which carries the maximum penalty of life imprisonment if convicted by the court.