Bong won’t go into hiding – lawyer

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr. has no reason to elude arrest or hide from authorities once the Sandiganbayan issues a warrant of arrest against him in connection with the filing of plunder charges on the multibillion-peso pork barrel scam.

Joel Bodegon, the senator’s lawyer, gave the assurance on the eve of another privilege speech by Revilla scheduled before plenary session today.

Revilla would reportedly deliver another bombshell against the administration of President Aquino.

Revilla’s speech today will be a follow-up to the privilege speech he delivered last January, where the embattled senator revealed how Aquino and Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II convinced him into making sure that then Supreme Court chief justice Renato Corona was impeached in 2012.

Aquino and Roxas, top leaders of the Liberal Party, vehemently denied bribing Revilla and other senator-judges to make sure that Corona was ousted from office.

As this developed, Bodegon assured the public yesterday that his client has no intention of hiding.

The lawyer pointed out that Revilla even returned to the country from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land early this year at the height of the pork barrel fund controversy, but the senator would also exhaust all legal remedies, presumably to avoid being detained for the non-bailable offense of plunder.

“When he left for a pilgrimage in Israel, Sen. Revilla returned to the country at the proper time. Will he face the charges? As he always said, yes, he will, but it will not mean that he will not exhaust all the legal remedies before he is ordered arrested,” Bodegon said over dzBB radio.

Bodegon also urged the Sandiganbayan to look into the facts and circumstances of the filing of information and possibly withhold the issuance of the warrant of arrest.