Senate implements Bong Revilla's 90-day preventive suspension

MANILA, Philippines - Senate President Franklin Drilon on Monday signed the 90-day suspension orders against Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr. and his staff member, lawyer Richard Cambe, in connection with the graft and plunder cases pending before the Sandiganbayan.

The suspension against Revilla will be effective November 3 until January 31 of next year.

Drilon signed the preventive suspension orders for Revilla and Cambe after his office received last Friday the resolution from the Sandiganbayan.

"Last Friday we received the order of the Sandiganbayan and we will implement it on November 3, 2014, next week, the preventive suspension of Senator Bong Revilla, until January 31, 2015. While the order was issued on July 31, there was a motion of reconsideration that was filed and we are not provided a copy of the resolution until Friday. So we were not able to implement the suspension," Drilon explained.

The senator notified Revilla in the order that since his motion for reconsideration has been denied by the anti-graft court, his office "therefore [is] left with no recourse but to implement the order of suspension under the 31 July 2014 Resolution consistent with the decision of the Supreme Court."

Copies of the order were also sent to the offices of the Senate majority leader, the acting minority leader and the Senate secretary.

Revilla is facing plunder charges along with Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Jinggoy Estrada in connection with pork barrel fund misuse.

The senators are now detained at the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters at Camp Crame.