Cambe files motions before Sandigan over plunder raps

By: Marc Jayson Cayabyab - 10 years ago

Sandiganbayan building facade. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Not long after his former boss Senator Ramon Revilla Jr. filed his motions, Revilla’s former political adviser Richard Cambe also questioned the plunder raps failed against him before the anti-graft court.

Cambe, who is former Director III in Revilla’s office, on Saturday filed a motion for the court to determine probable cause.

Cambe also asked the anti-graft court to produce the complete records of the preliminary investigations.

They also sought to suspend the court’s proceedings in the plunder case.

Revilla also filed the same motions on Saturday, according to his lawyer Joel Bodegon.

The Sandiganbayan on Friday received plunder charges against Senators Revilla, Juan Ponce Enrile, and Jinggoy Estrada for their alleged involvement in the multibillion-peso racket of diverting public funds to ghost projects for kickbacks.

Other pork barrel scam players are also implicated in the case. Enrile’s co-accused is his former chief of staff Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Reyes, Estrada’s co-accused is former deputy chief of staff Pauline Labayen, and Revilla’s co-accused is his former Director III. Co-accused for all three senators arem alleged mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles and John Raymund De Asis. Co-accused for both Enrile and Revilla is Ronald John Lim.

Lim is Napoles’ brother and De Asis is her long-time employee.

The Ombudsman said these officials and personalities “willfully, unlawfully, and criminally amass(ed), accumulate(d) and acquire(d) ill-gotten wealth.”

They were also alleged of “taking undue advantage… of their official positions, authority, relationships, connections and influence to unjustly enrich themselves at the expense and to the damage and prejudice of the Filipino people and the Republic of the Philippines.”

The pork barrel in the form of the Priority Development Assistance Funds has long been seen as a tool for political patronage and corruption.

The practice of allotting billions of public funds to lawmakers for them to ease poverty in their constituencies was struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional at the height of the scam investigation.