Sandiganbayan orders more of Bong Revilla's properties frozen

The First Division of the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court has expanded a freeze order on detained Senator Ramon Bong Revilla Jr.'s properties to include more assets.
 

In a six-page resolution issued on Friday afternoon, the First Division granted the prosecution's motion to include in the freeze order the properties named under Revilla's aliases as well as properties jointly named under him and the aliases of his wife, Cavite Rep. Lani Mercado.

 

"It is well to note that some of these 'other known names' of accused Revilla is in furtherance of the implementation of the writ of attachment, and will not even, in any way, change the import of the Court's February 5, 2015 Resolution," the First Division said.

 

In its February 5 resolution, the court ordered the Sandiganbayan sheriff to freeze Revilla's assets to satisfy the amount of P224.512 million, which was equivalent to the amount of kickbacks he allegedly received from the pork barrel scam.

 

In the writ of attachment that the First Division earlier issued, only properties under his legal name Ramon "Bong" B. Revilla Jr. as well as his joint properties with his wife's legal name Lani Hernandez Mercado were ordered frozen.

 

In its latest ruling, the First Division has extended the writ of attachment to cover properties under the following aliases and other names that the senator uses:
 

 

 

Meanwhile, the court also extended the coverage of the writ to include properties jointly named under Revilla and the following aliases of his wife:
 

 

 

The court, however, clarified that the writ of attachment will extend to Mercado only insofar as the properties are jointly named with Revilla or his aliases.

 

"In other words, the writ of preliminary attachment shall not include the properties, bank deposits, investments, etc. in the name of accused Revilla's wife alone as she is not being an accused in this case, and the prosecution not having presented reasonable ground to justify their inclusion," the court said.

 

The First Division, meanwhile dismissed the defense's argument that the court can no longer modify the first writ of attachment that it issued as it is considered as final as "the prosecution failed to challenge it in a motion for reconsideration".

 

"The Court maintains that as previously found, the issuance of writ preliminary attachment against the properties of accused Revilla is justified under the circumstances," the First Division's resolution read.

 

The court pointed out that some of these "other known names" of Revilla and his wife were also mentioned in the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) report on the bank accounts and other properties of Revilla in connection with his alleged involvement in the pork barrel scam "and yet, accused Revilla did not contest that these names refer to him or his wife".

 

"If any of these 'other known names' refer to other and different persons, the latter may always avail of the remedies provided by law and the rules," the court said.

 

The Sheriff Office, in complying with the court's earlier writ of attachment order, said that after combing through some 26 known bank accounts of Revilla and of his wife, it found that they only had around P290,000. — JDS, GMA News