Morales says she did more than her best to prosecute Revilla, would have dissented his acquittal

Former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales does not regret prosecuting former and incumbent government officials over the P10-billion pork barrel scam, even if Senator Bong Revilla, Jr. was acquitted of the plunder raps filed under her tenure.

“We did more than our best. Unfortunately, I am no longer a judge. I could have certainly come up with my dissent. I would not have acquitted him,” Morales, a retired Supreme Court Associate Justice, said at the sidelines of her lecture on corruption for the Jaime V. Ongpin Annual Memorial Lecture on Public Service on Wednesday.

“I know the evidence was strong. Unfortunately, a person looking out at the window sees the stars, and the other [person] sees the moon. There is no congruence of sides,” Morales added.

The Sandiganbayan acquitted Revilla of the P224 million plunder case in December 2018 over the prosecution's failure to prove their case beyond reasonable doubt.

Revilla’s chief-of-staff Richard Cambe, however, was convicted of plunder.

During the trial proper, Revilla's camp argued that Revilla did not commit plunder since he was never physically present in the alleged transaction with alleged scam mastermind Janet Napoles’ former financial officer Benhur Luy.

Luy was the whistleblower who testified how the kickbacks from the lawmakers’ discretionary Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) were broken down to Napoles, her employees (including Luy), lawmakers, and the legislators' chiefs-of-staff.

Then government prosecutors Jose Justiniano and Joefferson Torribio, however, countered that the physical absence of Revilla in the delivery of kickbacks does not equate to his innocence.

Justiniano also cited the report by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) showing that Revilla accumulated P87 million deposited to various banks in broken amounts a few days after his co-accused received the supposed kickbacks per the ledger kept by Luy. — MDM, GMA News