(Eagle News) — Former Senator Bong Revilla on Friday, Dec. 7, posted bail for the graft case filed against him.
Revilla posted a P480,000 bail for 16 counts of graft before the Sandiganbayan after he was acquitted of the plunder charges filed against him, earlier in the day.
During the promulgation, the Sandiganbayan’s first division, which had to convene into a special division because it could not reach a unanimous decision on Revilla’s plunder case, had said Revilla “cannot be held liable” for plunder.
According to Ramon Esguerra, Revilla’s legal counsel, of the five division justices, three voted to acquit Revilla, while two voted to convict him, leading to his acquittal.
Revilla’s co-accused, however—his former chief of staff Richard Cambe and alleged pork barrel scam queen Janet Lim Napoles— were found guilty of plunder and were sentenced to reclusion perpetua.
The anti-graft court also ordered Revilla, Cambe and Napoles to return P124.5 million to the national treasury.
Esguerra, however, said they would appeal that part of the court decision, saying Revilla could not be held civilly liable because he was found not criminally liable in the first place.
Revilla was charged with plunder for allegedly amassing P224.5 million worth of kickbacks from 2006 to 2010 by channeling his Priority Development Assistant Fund to the fake foundations allegedly put up by Napoles.
The graft case, on the other hand, stems from Revilla’s alleged allocation of over P500 million in pork barrel funds to Napoles’ fake foundations that caused injury to the government.
