Revilla accuses prosecution of tampering with evidence in pork scam trial

Sen. Bong Revilla. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – The camp of Sen. Bong Revilla has accused state prosecutors of tampering with the evidence in the P224.5-million plunder case against him.

In a statement, Revilla’s lawyers said they would a file a manifestation with the Sandiganbayan First Division on Monday (Dec. 1) accusing the Ombudsman’s prosecution team of cheating by altering the vouchers submitted by its witnesses.

Michael Ancheta, a lawyer of Richard Cambe, Revilla’s senior staff member and co-accused in the plunder case, claimed to have stumbled on at least four pages of tampered evidence during the marking of evidence in a preliminary conference at the Sandiganbayan last Friday.

But a member of the prosecution team, who refused to be identified, said this could be part of the delaying tactics of Revilla’s camp as the Sandiganbayan was set to rule on Revilla’s petition for bail this week. The prosecution member denied tampering with the evidence.

Ancheta claimed that some details in the photocopied documents were “intentionally fabricated” when he compared them with the original copies. He said the alterations contradicted the testimony of the witnesses led by whistle-blower Benhur Luy.

“This is a clear case of cheating by the prosecution as they deliberately changed the document and this is not an accident because I discovered this in at least four documents and it is possible that there could be more,” said Ancheta in Filipino.

The documents were disbursement vouchers filled out by Luy and other employees of accused plunderer Janet Lim-Napoles to show the flow of kickbacks from the pork barrel funds to Revilla and Cambe.