Bong Revilla aide asks SC to stop prosecution of plunder case

Atty. Richard Cambe.  INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Lawyer Richard Cambe, chief of staff of Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., has asked the Supreme Court to stop his prosecution on plunder before the Sandiganbayan in connection with the pork barrel scam.

In his 44-page petition, Cambe also urged the high court to order the Office of the Ombudsman to withdraw the information for plunder and 16 counts of graft charges filed against him.

Cambe is currently under police custody after the anti-graft court issued a warrant for his arrest.

Cambe, through his counsel Remigio Ancheta III, said Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales committed grave abuse of discretion in issuing its joint order last March 28 which found probable cause to indict him for plunder and graft.

He accused the Ombudsman of violating his constitutional right to due process when it totally ignored his counter-affidavits and evidence and even attributed to him statements and defenses he did not make in resolving the case against him.

The petitioner also told the Court that the Ombudsman used the counter-affidavits of the other respondents against him without providing him copies of such counter-affidavits despite his request.

“With gross violation by the Ombudsman of the petitioner’s right to due process and to confront the accusations against him, the assailed joint resolution dated March 28, 2014 was a complete nullity and it could not have been cured by the belated act of the Ombudsman in furnishing the petitioner counter-affidavits of only four of the other 27 respondents in the NBI (National Bureau of Inv4stigation) complaint,” the petition stated.

Cambe also said that he also submitted “uncontroverted evidence” to confirm that his signatures in the PDAF documents were forged.

“The uniform finding of two independent expert witnesses that the purported signatures of the petitioner in the PDAF documents were not affixed by the petitioner himself (hence, they are forgeries) cannot be arbitrarily rejected by the Ombudsman and to do so would be a grave abuse of discretion,” Cambe said.

He added that even the whistleblowers admitted that some signatures in the PDAF documents were forged.

“Otherwise stated, the PDAF documents have no probative value against the petitioner and therefore they cannot prejudice him and serve as basis for finding probable cause against him,” Cambe added.

Cambe, together with Revilla have been arraigned by the Sandiganbayan last June 26. Cambe pleaded not guilty.

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