Prosecution opposes Bong Revilla’s bid to attend daughter’s 18th birthday party

The prosecution panel opposed the motion of Sen. Ramon Bong Revilla Jr., an accused in the alleged pork barrel scam, to leave his detention on Saturday night to attend his daughter's 18th birthday party.

At the scheduled hearing of Revilla’s motion at the Sandiganbayan First Division on Thursday, lead prosecutor Joefferson Toribio said the prosecution team is opposing the senator’s motion for “lack of merit.”

Torribio then informed the court that their team had already submitted a formal opposition to the motion on Wednesday.

The court in turn asked Revilla’s lawyer, Reody Anthony Balisi, if their camp still intends to file a reply, to which he replied in the negative

“Therefore, the motion of the accused is deemed submitted for resolution,” First Division senior member Associate Justice Rodolfo Ponferrada declared.

In its three-page opposition paper, the prosecution maintained that the anti-graft court must not grant Revilla’s request, saying doing so “is tantamount to granting him a special privilege that is not accorded to an ordinary prisoner.”

The prosecution said granting Revilla’s request would unduly create an impression to the public that he is a favored detainee because of his high position in the government.

Revilla is currently detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame, Quezon City, for plunder and graft charges in connection with his alleged involvement in the multi-billion peso scam.

He is accused of amassing P224-million worth of kickbacks by allocating his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), or pork barrel, from 2006 to 2010 to fake foundations allegedly owned by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, the scam's alleged mastermind.

In a motion submitted to the First Division on Monday, Revilla asked that he be allowed to leave his detention for three hours or from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday, October 24, to attend the 18th birthday party of his daughter, Ma. Fraznel Loudette Bautista, to be held at Bellevue Hotel in Alabang, Muntinlupa City.

“As a father, Senator Revilla wishes to perform his obligation and be part of Loudette’s special day,” Revilla's motion read.

The prosecution, in convincing the First Division to deny Revilla’s plea, reminded the court that it has earlier denied the senator’s similar motion to attend Loudette’s commencement exercises in March this year.

“It ruled that ‘allowing accused Revilla to attend the graduation of his daughter will not only set a bad precedent, but will likewise be regarded as a mockery of the administration of justice’. Thus, there is no reason for this Court to deviate from its earlier pronouncement,” the prosecution said.

The prosecution further argued that Revilla, as a detention prisoner, must not be accorded full enjoyment of his civil and political rights like a free man, especially as his petition to post bail for his plunder case had been denied by the court.

“Considering the gravity of the offense charged against him, and the current stage of the proceedings herein, not to mention the magnitude of the amount involved, the Honorable Court must restrict accused Revilla’s movement as a detention prisoner, so as not to afford accused Revilla the opportunity, however remote, to escape from incarceration,” the prosecution said.

Earlier this month, the First Division granted Revilla a five-day furlough to undergo dental procedures. —KBK, GMA News