Even Revilla’s small peso bills not spared from garnishment

TWO town houses and small peso bills in a bank account were added to the frozen properties of detained Senator Ramon Revilla Jr. as he faces plunder over the pork barrel scam.

In its latest report signed by Sandiganbayan Sheriff Albert Dela Cruz, the sheriff’s office said it has enclosed to the preliminary writ of attachment for garnishment Revilla’s two town houses in Tagaytay on two separate 125-square-meter lots. The two lots have a market value of P750,000 each while the two townhouses at P904,990 each.

Among the list of 15 vehicles, the court was told that a Toyota Corolla up for garnishment was not under Revilla’s name but for his daughter Inah Felicia Bautista.

The court sheriff was also informed that they froze an additional P36.10 on top of P72,231.27 garnished as of April 2015 in Land Bank of the Philippines Senate Extension Office.

Revilla’s different properties were garnished so that if the government secures a favorable ruling, it could take back his alleged kickbacks from the scam worth P224,512,500.

Earlier, the court was able to secure a 10,191 square-meter property and a 14,834 square-meter property both in Silang, Cavite, and a Fuso Jitney named under Revilla’s wife Cavite Rep. Lani Mercado.

The court was also able to freeze Revilla’s bank accounts that contained P291,205.62, or a small fraction of the  P224.5 million in his purported commissions from pork barrel kickbacks.

Of the 26 bank accounts, Revilla was also able to close 11 accounts between 2009 and 2014, five of which were closed by himself after news of the pork barrel scam broke out, the report said.

The court also allowed the garnishment of more properties that were under Revilla’s aliases.

Revilla is detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center as he faces plunder charges over the alleged scheme of pilfering lawmakers’ Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) to ghost projects for kickbacks. Also detained for plunder are alleged mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles, Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Juan Ponce Enrile, and former representatives Rizalina Seachon Lanete and Edgar Valdez.