Ombudsman seeks Bong transfer to regular jail

MANILA, Philippines - After preventing detained Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr. from being granted bail by the Sandiganbayan, prosecutors of the Office of the Ombudsman are now pushing for his transfer to a regular jail.

Assistant Ombudsman and spokesperson Asryman Rafanan yesterday said prosecutors led by Joefferson Toribio will also be focusing on efforts to have Revilla’s properties, amounting to P224 million, garnished or frozen during the trial for his involvement in the pork barrel fund scam.

He said these are the next steps to be taken considering how the prosecution team has won the first battle insofar as Revilla’s petition for bail is concerned.

The motions filed by prosecutors seeking Revilla’s transfer from the Philippine National Police (PNP) custodial center in Camp Crame to a regular jail facility are yet to be resolved by the Sandiganbayan First Division which, on Tuesday, denied his petition for bail as well as that of his co-accused Richard Cambe and Janet Lim-Napoles.

Rafanan said Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales commended Toribio and his team for their latest legal victory which will hopefully lead to a conviction.

He also announced that more pork barrel fund scam cases will be filed before the Sandiganbayan next year which will include congressmen who also allegedly pocketed funds from the Napoles scheme of giving them kickbacks or commissions in exchange for priority development assistance fund (PDAF) allocations to her bogus non-government organizations (NGOs).

Department of Justice (DOJ) Undersecretary Jose Justiniano, on the other hand, belied accusations and insinuations that the Office of the Ombudsman is zeroing in on opposition figures like Revilla and his fellow Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Jinggoy Estrada.

Justiniano said it just so happened that the three had the biggest amounts involved and are high-ranking public officials who, under the Ombudsman Act, should be prioritized.

“That is very clear in the law. You can be assured that the DOJ is not choosing who to prosecute,” Justiniano said.

“We go by the evidence,” Rafanan added, explaining that high-profile cases are prioritized by the Office of the Ombudsman.

Mosquera also belied accusations that Ombudsman prosecutors are delaying the proceedings in the Revilla, Enrile, and Estrada cases.

“As you noticed, all the accused are sick,” he told reporters who laughed at his suggestion that public officials who get charged in court end up suffering from all sorts of ailments.

He said it is also the accused who file all sorts of motions to raise technical issues that actually result in delay of proceedings.

Justiniano said the denial of bail to Revilla is also a “good signal” insofar as the petition for bail of Estrada considering that they have a Ruby Tuason, former President Joseph Estrada’s former social secretary, to testify against him.

Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, meanwhile, said Revilla has not yet firmed up his plans to run for president in 2016 and remains focused on his defense on the plunder case.         

Prior to his detention five months ago, Lakas-CMD was considering fielding Revilla, the party chairman, as its standard bearer.

Romualdez said he had a chance to talk to Revilla when he visited him in his detention cell in Camp Crame several days ago.

“Obviously, right now, the senator is facing his legal battles, so we’re not thinking of that (presidential bid). We’re not thinking about 2016,” Romualdez said. –Paolo Romero