{"id":192847,"date":"2018-12-07T01:59:42","date_gmt":"2018-12-07T06:59:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=192847"},"modified":"2018-12-07T01:59:42","modified_gmt":"2018-12-07T06:59:42","slug":"sandiganbayan-clears-revilla-convicts-napoles-cambe-of-plunder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/12\/07\/sandiganbayan-clears-revilla-convicts-napoles-cambe-of-plunder\/","title":{"rendered":"Sandiganbayan clears Revilla; convicts Napoles, Cambe of plunder"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: ACQUITTED. Former Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. undergoes medical checkup after being cleared of plunder case by the Sandiganbayan on Friday. (PNA PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— The Sandiganbayan on Friday acquitted former Senator Ramon \u201cBong\u201d Revilla, Jr. of plunder case in connection with his alleged involvement in the multi-billion peso Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or \u201cpork barrel\u201d fund scam.<\/p>\n

The Sandiganbayan said the prosecution presented insufficient evidence to prove the plunder case against Revilla.<\/p>\n

After being cleared of the plunder case, Revilla immediately posted a PHP480,000 bail for the 16 counts of graft before the Clerk of Court of the Sandiganbayan First Division.<\/p>\n

The former senator was whisked to the Coaster and brought back to the Philippine National Police National Headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City.<\/p>\n

He is expected to go home to their house in Bacoor City, Cavite later.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the anti-graft court found businesswoman Janet Napoles and Revilla\u2019s former chief of staff, Richard Cambe, guilty of plunder.<\/p>\n

Revilla was detained in 2014, as well as former Senator Jose \u201cJinggoy\u201d Estrada and former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile. who also were charged with plunder.<\/p>\n

Court records showed the Office of the Ombudsman accused Revilla of allegedly amassing PHP224.5 million in \u201ckickbacks\u201d for channeling his PDAF to bogus non-government organizations set up by Napoles.<\/p>\n

Napoles is the alleged \u201cbrains\u201d behind the PHP10-billion pork barrel and the PHP900-million Malampaya Fund scams.<\/p>\n

Records also showed that in April 2014, then Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales ordered the filing of plunder case against Revilla, Cambe and Napoles.<\/p>\n

The Ombudsman filed the plunder case against the three accused before the Sandiganbayan on June 5, 2014.<\/p>\n

Revilla surrendered to the Sandiganbayan on June 20, 2014. His motion for bail for his temporary liberty was denied in December 2014.<\/p>\n

Revilla appealed the denial of his motion before the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

However, in July 2018, the Supreme Court junked his appeal.<\/p>\n

On Aug. 9, 2018, the prosecution terminated the presentation of the pieces of evidence against Revilla.<\/p>\n

Last October, Revilla filed his certificate of candidacy (COC) for senator, through his wife Bacoor City Mayor Lani Mercado, at the Commission on Elections main office in Intramuros, Manila.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— The Sandiganbayan on Friday acquitted former Senator Ramon \u201cBong\u201d Revilla, Jr. of plunder case in connection with his alleged …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":192848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-perfecto-raymundo-jr","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}