Bong Revilla’s not dead; court lets him stay in hospital

Former Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. INQUIRER PHOTO/RAFFY LERMA

The Sandiganbayan has allowed former Sen. Ramon Bong Revilla Jr., to stay at St. Luke’s Medical Center until he is discharged by his doctors.

Revilla was brought to the hospital after he complained of severe headache and nausea due to hypertension since the past weekend. He has been confined at the upscale medical center in Quezon City since Saturday morning.

The antigraft court’s First Division during a Tuesday hearing granted the Revilla camp’s request to allow him to stay at the hospital until all tests are done and he is discharged.

“The court has graciously permitted us for humanitarian considerations,” defense lawyer Reody Anthony Balisi told reporters at the sidelines of the hearing. “So, we’ll just await the discharge orders of the doctors after all the tests have been done.”

Without elaborating, Balisi said Revilla was scheduled to undergo physical and neurological examinations. He added that doctors in their medical abstract recommended that Revilla be confined until today (Wednesday).

Hoax

Balisi also denied the circulating hoax on social media that Revilla had passed away. He said the former senator was doing well by now.

“In fact, I just reported a while ago and talked to him at the hospital. He seems OK, stable and still resting, so that’s not true,” he said.

“His health is OK in terms of his spirits. It’s just that he has these health conditions that we have to address.”

The rumor seems to have originated from hoax sites Carl Nixon Newton All Live and Cbn Television, whose URLs (cnn-alive.com and cbn-tv.com) are designed to dupe unsuspecting readers into thinking they are legitimate media sites. The hoax stories cited the Philippine National Police as their source.

The 50-year-old senator is facing plunder and graft charges for allegedly receiving P224.5 million in kickbacks by diverting his Priority Development Assistance Fund allocations to fake foundations supposedly controlled by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles.

He and another former opposition senator, Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, are detained at the PNP Custodial Center since June 2014.