Sandiganbayan rejects Bong Revilla jail transfer

Former senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. will remain behind bars in the Payatas prison facility after the Sandiganbayan denied his bid to be transferred to the custodial center at Camp Crame.

More significantly, the anti-graft court has sustained the sufficiency of the non-bailable charge of malversation of public funds through falsification of public documents filed by the Office of the Ombudsman against Revilla and six former officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

The case stems from the alleged ₱92.8-million ghost flood control project in Pandi, Bulacan.

In a 30-page resolution, the Sandiganbayan’s Third Division junked Revilla’s omnibus motion seeking the dismissal of the case and its remand to the Ombudsman for reinvestigation. The court likewise denied his motion to quash the arrest warrant issued on January 19, the same day he surrendered to authorities.

The Third Division also turned down the motion filed by Revilla’s co-accused, former DPWH Bulacan First District Engineering Office (DEO) accountant Juanito Mendoza, who sought the dismissal of the information against him. Mendoza’s request to consolidate the malversation case with a separate graft case pending before the court’s Fourth Division was likewise denied.In the same ruling, the court rejected the plea of former DPWH Bulacan First DEO engineer Emelita Juat to be detained at the Bulacan Provincial Police Office instead of Camp Karingal’s Female Dormitory in Quezon City. TRACY CABRERA