Pangasinan officials bolster Ombudsman case vs Revilla

Pangasinan Vice Gov. Jose Ferdinand Calimlim and a few other local officials have backed the Office of the Ombudsman’s claim that their municipalities never received benefits from the projects allegedly financed by former Sen. Bong Revilla with pork barrel funds.

During the fourth hearing in Revilla’s plunder trial at the Sandiganbayan First Division, Office of the Special Prosecutor Director Joefferson Toribio defended the presentation of government officials to confirm the allegation.

This was despite the repeated objection of Revilla’s lawyer, Estelito Mendoza, who insisted that the nonimplementation of the Priority Development Assistance Fund projects was irrelevant to the senator’s plunder case, as it was suspected mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles who allegedly pocketed the funds.

‘Wrong premise’

At one point, Mendoza said all the interviews conducted by the Ombudsman field investigators were “invalid” because they were based on the “wrong premise” that the projects were  to be received from Revilla.

“These interviews were derogatory to Senator Revilla. All of these interviews are void,” he said.