What Went Before: Bong Revilla’s plunder case
In its information for plunder filed in the Sandiganbayan on June 6, the Ombudsman said Sen. Bong Revilla collected P224.512 million from 2006 to 2010 in collusion with his chief of staff, Richard Cambe, and businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged brains behind the P10-billion pork barrel scam.
According to the Ombudsman, Revilla, Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Juan Ponce Enrile, Napoles and five other people stockpiled a combined total of P581 million in kickbacks through the diversion of pork barrel funds to bogus foundations from 2004 to 2012.
According to affidavits submitted by whistle-blowers, Revilla allowed his pork barrel to be used by the Napoles nongovernment organizations (NGOs) in 22 instances. In its special audit report released on Aug. 16 last year, the Commission on Audit found that Napoles NGOs received P413.29 million from Revilla’s office from 2007 to 2009.
On June 20, Revilla turned himself in at the Sandiganbayan and became the first politician to be arrested on charges of plunder and graft in the large-scale diversion of public funds first exposed by the Inquirer in July last year.–Compiled by Kate Pedroso, Inquirer Research
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