Bong’s lawyer: Senate violated Napoles’ right

MANILA, Philippines - The camp of Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr. yesterday expressed concern that the Senate may have committed a “brazen violation” of Janet Lim-Napoles’ constitutional right to presumption of innocence when some senators insinuated that she could be guilty in the alleged pork barrel scam.

Joel Bodegon, legal counsel of Revilla who is one of three senators facing plunder in connection with the scam, also decried the trial by publicity generated by the Senate Blue Ribbon committee’s probe on the pork barrel issue last Thursday.

“The sad thing is that the investigation was a brazen violation of Janet Napoles’ constitutional right to presumption of innocence as most of the senators already condemned her guilty without the benefit of trial,” Bodegon said.