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Former senator Ramon ‘Bong’ Revilla Jr. and his wife Lani are mobbed by supporters upon their arrival at their home in Bacoor, Cavite Friday night.

The AMLC report was “not conclusive,” according to the Sandiganbayan Special First Division’s 186-page decision promulgated on December 7.

“From the report, we could not deduce with certainty that the monies deposited to the accounts examined by the AMLC from 2006 to 2010 solely comes from accused Revilla alone. The Court could not even draw a conclusion that the money deposited in the accounts examined came from Napoles through Cambe. Looking at the different bank and other financial transactions, the Court is uncertain if the deposits made by accused Revilla and his wife were fresh funds brought into the account or withdrawn from another account,” the court said.

“Moreover, the accounts investigated by the AMLC include the accounts of Revilla’s wife, Lani Mercado ( Jesusa Victoria Hernandez) and Nature Concepts Development Realty Corp., a separate juridical entity. But in the presentation of evidence, the prosecution left so many gaps in the data that it should have plugged in order for us to reach a certain degree of certainty that the monies deposited in the account did not come from any other source but from Napoles through Cambe, excluding all other possibilities of the sources of the deposits,” it added.

But Revilla “never even attempted to debunk” AMLC’s findings, according to Estoesta.

“He simply wallowed in his own defense of denial and forgery. Why

their “crippled ranks.”

“They cannot appeal to people’s emotions and festive mood with their guns tucked behind their backs,” Durana said of the rebels.

The NPA announced their cease-

should the majority opinion now take the cudgels for him?” she said.

“As a whole, the unexplained wealth of [former senator] Revilla is one glaring fact, left unrefuted, to gloss over. If this should not be considered as the end-all to the PDAF conspiracy, where should this lead to instead?” Estoesta, who leads the court’s Seventh Division, added in part.

The court found in its decision that the supposed signatures on the endorsement letters addressed to the implementing agencies appeared “to be pointedly different from” his standard signatures.

“While I should give deference to the independent finding made on forgery in the majority opinion, what it overlooked is its foundational premise on whether the exemplars delivered as ‘questioned’ and ‘standards’ were sufficiently established to be ideal exemplars for handwriting examination. Apparently, none was made, and this is a fatal flaw from which the majority opinion, or worse, the handwriting expert, should even base their conclusions,” Estoesta said.

According to her dissenting opinion, de la Cruz’s original ponencia was dissented by Econg and Caldona, who are the Sandiganbayan First Division’s two other regular members, which led to the creation of the Special Division of Five.

Econg said on Wednesday, “I would have loved to be a heroine, that I convicted him, but at the end of the day we are bound by evidence.” The Armed Forces of the Philippines said it would not declare a holiday truce with the rebels. The CPP-NPA-NDF announced

- sultant Rey Casambre and his wife Patricia were arrested in Bacoor, Cavite, on Friday midnight. country, where many Filipinos celebrate the Feast of Immaculate Conception of Mary.

The Catholic Church considers the feast a “day of obligation,” and asks the faithful to attend Mass.

Besides December 8, the Church also considers the following as days of obliga-