SC: No more oral debates for Bong Revilla plea

BAGUIO CITY - The Supreme Court has decided to call off the scheduled April 22 oral arguments on a petition by Senator Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr. contesting the plunder complaints filed against him over the P10-billion pork barrel scam.

This was announced by SC Public Information Office chief and spokesman Theodore Te in a press briefing after the high magistrates concluded its second day of summer en banc session on Tuesday.

According to Te, the high tribunal has yet to reveal the reason for the cancellation of the oral debates. Likewise, the high court also refused to grant the lawmaker's request to stop his indictment.

Revilla filed a motion with the Ombudsman last January 15 asking it to suspend the preliminary investigation on the plunder complaints filed against him by the NBI and Baligod. The Ombudsman, however, junked Revilla's request on January 28.

Ombudsman Conchita Morales said her office dismissed Revilla's plunder charge against "pork" scam whistleblowers Benhur Luy, Merlina Suñas and Marina Sula "since the three have been admitted to the Department of Justice’s Witness Protection Program."

The Ombudsman also dismissed Revilla's countercharge against fellow respondents in the alleged scam cases Dennis Cunanan, Antonio Ortiz, Alan Javellana, Gondelina Amata, Salvador Salacup, Mylene Encarnacion, Nemesio Pablo, Evelyn De Leon, Jocelyn Piorato, John Raymund De Asis and Ronald John Lim.

It said the countercharge was junked "because it stems from similar, if not identical, factual allegations as those filed by the National Bureau of Investigation and Field Investigation Office against them who are, in any event, already impleaded."

Revilla's motion

Revilla's motion to suspend the Ombudsman's preliminary investigation on the pork barrel scam was also junked as investigators found "no prejudicial question exists to warrant the suspension...."

In his plea with the Ombudsman, the lawmaker had asked that the ongoing proceedings be suspended, pending the resolution of a separate civil complaint he had filed with the Bacoor City Regional Trial Court in Cavite.

In his complaint, Revilla had asked the Cavite court to declare as null and void the documents submitted by the NBI and Baligod in the plunder complaints against him because his supposed signatures in them were allegedly forged.

But the joint order ruled that the civil complaint at the RTC "has no bearing in the outcome of the criminal cases filed with the Office of the Ombudsman."

Revilla is facing a plunder complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman for allegedly pocketing over P224 million in kickbacks from the alleged pork barrel scam, supposedly engineered by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, currently detained over a serious illegal detention case. — BM, GMA News