Senator Bong Revilla, shown in photo on his way to be detained on plunder and graft charges, said his lawyer, Sal Panelo, only talked about the rats and roaches in his cell in jest. Revilla’s lawyer has said the senator’s family saw rats “as big as cats” inside the senator’s cell. (MNS photo)
MANILA, Sept 25 (Mabuhay) – The Sandiganbayan First Division has upheld its decision to suspend Senator Ramon Bong Revilla Jr. and his former staff Richard Cambe for 90 days over the plunder and graft charges they are facing in connection with the alleged P10-billion pork barrel scam.
In a 17-page resolution on Wednesday, the graft court junked the motion of reconsideration filed by Revilla’s camp, saying it found no basis to change its decision.
In the same ruling, it also denied the senator’s prayer to suspend proceedings and upheld the existence of probable cause against him and Cambe.
“In the present cases, the validity of the Informations against accused Revilla and Cambe has been established. (T)he Court, then and now, has pronounced that there is probable case to indict the accused-movants with plunder and violation of the anti-graft law,” the Sandiganbayan said.
The anti-graft court ordered the suspension last August 4, as Revilla and Cambe face plunder and graft charges over the alleged pork barrel scam.
Revilla, one of the three senators detained over the pork barrel scam, is accused of receiving P224.5 million in kickbacks from 2006 to 2010 from alleged mastermind, Janet Lim-Napoles.
He surrendered to the Sandiganbayan on June 20.
At present, both he and Cambe are detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center.
The anti-graft court has also junked the motion filed by former Technology Resource Center director general Antonio Ortiz to quash four counts of graft filed against him.(MNS)