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Former senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. is aware of the Sandiganbayan like an previous buddy.
He had been there a few occasions earlier than for his pork barrel circumstances, the place he secured acquittals. And in lower than a decade, the previous lawmaker returned to the anti-graft courtroom for a brand new set of circumstances that when once more stem from corruption allegations.
All the things went quick for Revilla, a former senator who misplaced his reelection bid in 2025.
The Workplace of the Ombudsman filed a graft cost and a non-bailable malversation case in opposition to him on January 16 over a P92.8-million flood management ghost challenge in Bulacan. Instantly, the Sandiganbayan’s Third Division issued a warrant by Monday, January 19, signaling Revilla’s impending return to jail.
As an alternative of ready to be arrested, the previous senator had a name with Division of the Inside and Native Authorities (DILG) Secretary Juanito Victor “Jonvic” Remulla and later surrendered to Philippine Nationwide Police (PNP) chief Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. at Camp Crame.
The PNP served the warrant in opposition to Revilla to allow the courtroom to achieve jurisdiction over him. Revilla later spent the evening in Camp Crame the place his previous detention facility is positioned.
By January 20, Revilla confronted the Sandiganbayan to await its choice on the place he can be detained whereas the trial is ongoing. Remulla escorted him within the courtroom. The ball is within the palms of the Third Division as a result of it handles the non-bailable malversation case. Graft, pending with the Fourth Division, is bailable.
Revilla’s household was there too on the chamber — Cavite Consultant Lani Mercado and a few of their youngsters. The previous senator’s legal professionals for his pork barrel circumstances have been additionally current: Ramon Esguerra and Rean Balisi.
Earlier than the Third Division justices, the camp stated they needed the previous senator to be detained in a facility beneath the custody of the PNP, however Nartatez opposed this. The highest cop despatched a letter to the anti-graft courtroom, requesting that it chorus from placing Revilla beneath their custody on account of monetary and manpower issues. Plus, Nartatez stated, their services home high-risk suspects.
Revilla’s legal professionals insisted that he can’t be positioned on the Quezon Metropolis Jail in Payatas on account of safety dangers. The Bureau of Jail Administration and Penology stated there have been no violence-related incidents on this facility devoted to flood management circumstances.
Ultimately, the chamber headed by Third Division chairperson Affiliate Justice Karl Miranda dominated to put Revilla in Payatas, not beneath the PNP’s custody like he was for his pork barrel circumstances.
However Revilla’s camp was persistent. They stated they’d file a movement with the courtroom to switch the previous senator to a special facility.
Revilla in flood management corruption
How can Revilla, a former senator, be concerned within the multibillion-peso flood management scandal?
State witness and former Division of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) district engineer Henry Alcantara stated Revilla had a P300-million price range insertion in 2024. These have been for flood management tasks in Bulacan.
One other state witness, former DPWH undersecretary Roberto Bernardo, confirmed that Revilla acquired kickbacks from flood management tasks. Aside from admitting that he personally delivered cash to Revilla’s residence in Cavite, Bernardo additionally stated Revilla’s “dedication” or kickback was at 25%.
The Ombudsman probably used these leads and traced to Revilla a ghost flood management challenge in Bulacan. In accordance with the anti-corruption physique, Revilla, former DPWH engineers Brice Hernandez and Jaypee Mendoza, and different DPWH Bulacan officers allegedly conspired to launch P76 million from the P92.8-million flood challenge that was by no means carried out in Pandi, Bulacan.
They have been charged with graft (corruption) and malversation, or a case that has one thing to do with the misuse of public funds, for the reason that accused allegedly falsified accomplishment stories.
“Regardless of the absence of any precise development, the respondents declared the challenge accomplished. Thereafter, to facilitate the discharge of the whole challenge price, the respondents are discovered to have falsified accomplishment stories, issued fraudulent billing paperwork, and endorsed disbursement vouchers,” the Ombudsman stated.
Revilla is now the very best former public official, the massive fish, to be held beneath custody on account of flood control-related circumstances.
His prices — together with these of Hernandez, Mendoza, and others — are the third set of circumstances to have reached the courts after the submitting of prices in opposition to former Ako Bicol consultant Zaldy Co in November and the circumstances in opposition to contractor Sarah Discaya and DPWH officers in December. Co, already resigned, continues to be at massive.
Actually déjà vu
Like within the flood management mess, Revilla was additionally among the many huge fish who acquired entangled within the multimillion-peso pork barrel rip-off years in the past.
Within the pork barrel corruption scheme, lawmakers collected kickbacks by funneling their Precedence Improvement Help Fund (PDAF) into bogus non-government organizations linked to pork barrel queen Janet Lim Napoles.
Revilla, as within the flood management corruption mess, was the primary former lawmaker to be arrested and detained years again. It was in 2014, the peak of the pork barrel rip-off, when Revilla turned the first senator to be arrested on account of plunder and graft.
The then-senator confronted the PDAF circumstances as a result of he allegedly earned P224.5-million in kickbacks from the pork barrel rip-off. He spent solely 4 years in detention as a result of in 2018, he acquired acquitted in his plunder case owing to his signature supposedly being cast.
The Sandiganbayan’s Particular First Division dominated through majority vote that the previous senator was not responsible of plunder and graft, however ordered him to return P124.5 million to the Philippine treasury.
As of 2024, Revilla had but to return the P124.5 million, a Rappler inquiry revealed.
Whereas Revilla acquired acquitted, his former workers Richard Cambe and Napoles have been discovered responsible of plunder and sentenced to reclusion perpetua or imprisonment of at the least 20 years and in the future as much as at most 40 years. Cambe died in 2021.
In 2021, the Sandiganbayan Particular First Division, with a 3-2 vote, acquitted Revilla of 16 counts of graft. The courtroom cited his plunder acquittal and cast signatures. With this graft acquittal, Revilla walked away from all his authorized circumstances that stemmed from the pork barrel scandal.
His fellow huge fish — Senator Jinggoy Estrada and the late former senator Juan Ponce Enrile — additionally later secured acquittals. Enrile scored his plunder acquittal in 2024 and his graft acquittal in October 2025, earlier than passing away the next month.
Estrada, in the meantime, was acquitted of plunder in 2024. He’s the one one among the many huge names talked about within the rip-off to have pending circumstances due to his nonetheless ongoing graft prices. Like Revilla, Estrada’s title had additionally been dragged into the flood management scandal by Alcantara.
What now for Revilla?
Whereas Revilla’s malversation case is non-bailable, his graft is bailable. He posted P90,000-bail earlier than the Sandiganbayan’s Fourth Division on January 20.
However regardless of this, he’ll nonetheless be detained in Payatas due to the malversation cost. He’ll stay detained there, together with different flood management corruption suspects, except the courtroom grants his movement to be transferred to a different facility.
Revilla’s arraignment — the place he’ll enter both a responsible or not responsible plea — is about for Friday, January 23. On today, the anti-graft courtroom may even hear his different motions.
He might file a petition for bail in his malversation case, similar to what Enrile did in his non-bailable plunder case. Enrile’s bail petition was granted by the Supreme Courtroom on humanitarian grounds.
If the courtroom approves Revilla’s petition for bail, he might be granted provisional liberty whereas his circumstances are on trial. However he would wish a compelling cause — a very robust argument — to persuade the courtroom to grant him non permanent freedom. – Rappler.com
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