SC to tackle Revilla’s pork barrel case

Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The entire Supreme Court will now be hearing the case filed by Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. that questioned the Ombudsman’s initiation of an investigation into his alleged involvement in the pork barrel scam.

The court’s Third Division issued yesterday a two-page order elevating Revilla’s suit to the Court en banc and resetting the oral arguments from April 1 to April 22 at the Supreme Court summer session hall in Baguio City.

The division took cognizance of the letter of one of its members, Justice Marvic Leonen, requesting the elevation of the case to the full court because the suit was “intricately related” to the pork barrel case (Belgica v Ochoa) decided by the Supreme Court in November last year.

The Revilla suit also presents the court “an opportunity to further interpret the case to increase its import and significance in the workings” of the Philippine government and society, Leonen said.

The Third Division is chaired by Justice Presbitero Velasco, with Justices Leonen, Diosdado Peralta, Roberto Abad and Jose Mendoza as members.

In a case filed last March 14, Revilla accused the Ombudsman of grave abuse of discretion when it denied his motion to suspend the preliminary investigation of the pork barrel scam or allegations of kickbacks in legislator’s Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF).  Others parties charged were the National Bureau of Investigation, lawyer Levito Baligod and the Ombudsman’s field investigation office.

The senator wanted the Ombudsman to hold its investigation pending the resolution of plunder charges he had filed in court against 14 people, among them the whistleblowers in the PDAF scam.

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