Former senator Bong Revilla’s camp insisted that he must not be ordered by the Sandiganbayan 1st Division to pay P124.5 million in civil liability following his acquittal from the plunder case filed against him regarding the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam.
According to Revilla’s lawyer Estelito Mendoza, Revilla’s camp has filed a motion to file comment following the motion for execution of judgment submitted by the prosecution.
“The above simply means what it says: Revilla did not receive, directly or indirectly, rebates, commission, and kickbacks from his PDAF. What, then shall he return?” Mendoza said.
“Having held that Revilla is not criminally liable, the above paragraph would not have referred to Revilla but only to the accused who have been criminally liable, namely: Richard A. Cambe and Janet Lim Napoles,” Mendoza added.
This echoed Atty. Ramon Esguerra’s earlier statement that that only those who were proven guilty of their involvement in the scam, also known as pork barrel, were asked to return the money including alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles and former legislative aide Richard Cambe.
Earlier, the Sandiganbayan acquitted Revilla of plunder after the prosecution failed to prove his involvement in the scam particularly on claims that the senator received Php224.5 million kickbacks from the scheme.
Napoles and Cambe, meanwhile, were convicted guilty and were ordered to return Php124 million.
