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PORK BARREL SCAM

Sandiganbayan affirms denial of Bong Revilla's bid to quash plunder rap


The Sandiganbayan has affirmed its denial of former Senator Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr.'s plea to dismiss his plunder case over his alleged involvement in the pork barrel scam.

In an eight-page resolution, the anti-graft court's First Division denied Revilla's motion for reconsideration of the court's February 23 resolution denying his quashal bid.

Revilla, in his motion, insisted that the case information does not adequately inform him of the nature and cause of allegations against him.

The facts in the case information likewise do not constitute the crime of plunder, he said.

Citing an earlier Supreme Court ruling on Estrada v. Sandiganbayan, Revilla also said the Plunder Law "does not give a fair warning" that the "common world" will understand the acts a person should commit to make him liable for plunder.

He argued that the Supreme Court, in upholding the Plunder Law's constitutionality, had to resort to Congress proceedings when it was being deliberated.

But the anti-graft court found no merit in Revilla's arguments.

"In determining the constitutionality of statutes, it is not uncommon for the Supreme Court to refer to deliberations of Congress in determining the intention of the lawmakers, particularly, if the latter intended a technical or special legal meaning to certain words used in the law," the court's resolution read.

"Moreover, stress must be made that the review of the legislative deliberations in Estrada was limited to ascertaining how Congress intended the words 'combination' and 'series' to be understood, which is not a subject of contention in the present case," it added.

The court added that Revilla's other arguments in his motion were "mere reiteration and rehashed versions" of those in his motion to quash. 

Revilla Jr. is facing plunder and graft charges for allegedly pocketing P224.5 million in kickbacks from channeling his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) allocations to bogus non-government organizations linked to businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles.

The former senator has been detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame since June 2014. —KG, GMA News

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