Court denies Senator Revilla access to Luy’s files

MANILA, Philippines—Detained Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. has suffered another legal setback.

Sen. Bong Revilla. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The Sandiganbayan has denied the move of his lawyers to have unlimited access to the hard drive owned by primary whistle-blower Benhur Luy, which allegedly contains the financial transactions of suspected pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles.

In a seven-page ruling, the antigraft court’s First Division also threw out Revilla’s plea to cite Luy, his lawyers and National Bureau of Investigation agent Joey Narciso in contempt for their refusal to allow his lawyers to copy the electronic storage device in full.

“The court believes and so holds that when the prosecution presented Luy as its witness and used his hard drive as part of his direct testimony, it is bound to give access of the said hard drive and its entire contents to the accused,” the court said in its Sept. 23 resolution.

“To hold otherwise… would not only run counter to the provisions of the Rules (on Evidence), but would violate the rights of the accused under the Constitution and the Rules of Court,” it added.

However, the court said that while Revilla and his former political aide, Richard Cambe, had the right to access Luy’s hard disk, they should be allowed to scrutinize only the information that the prosecution had presented in court during the hearing of their petition.

Both Cambe and Revilla are standing trial for plunder and graft in connection with the P10-billion pork barrel scam allegedly hatched by Napoles through her network of bogus foundations.

Citing Luy’s right to privacy, it said the defense lawyers may only access the specific data covering the criminal charges filed against Cambe and Revilla.

The court likewise junked the defense lawyers request to strike out Narciso’s testimony and to exclude the electronic device as evidence against them. Marlon Ramos

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