EDITORIAL — Yes, where’s the P124.5 million?

Malversation of public funds involving amounts exceeding P8.8 million can warrant life imprisonment and is supposed to be non-bailable.

Former senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., who faces a malversation case involving P76.9 million in alleged kickback for a ghost flood control project in Pandi, Bulacan, was granted bail by the Sandiganbayan ostensibly due to weak evidence.

Revilla, who sought reelection in 2025 under the administration’s Alyansa slate but lost, was temporarily freed last Friday after posting bail of P1 million.

As in his previous plunder case in which his chief of staff was among his co-defendants, Revilla’s six co-accused in the malversation case, including public works officials Brice Hernandez and Jaypee Mendoza, were denied bail by the Sandigan Third Division, whose chairman Karl Miranda strongly opposed the grant of bail.

The two other Third Division members, Associate Justices Ronald Moreno and Fritz Bryan Anthony delos Santos, argued that the kickbacks Revilla allegedly received came from private contractors before the actual project implementation, and therefore did not constitute “public funds.”

Miranda pointed out that this was part of the kalakaran or norm at the Department of Public Works and Highways, under which contractors gave advance “commitments” or kickbacks to lawmakers or other project proponents to bag DPWH contracts.

Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla lamented that the bail grant was not surprising, since his office had heard of efforts behind the scenes to secure the court’s approval.

Remulla also noted that Revilla still owed the government P124.5 million from the pork barrel plunder case. The Sandiganbayan, in a weird ruling, had ordered Revilla to return the pork barrel funds while acquitting him of the criminal aspect.

In that case, only Revilla’s chief of staff Richard Cambe was convicted together with pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles. Cambe was serving a life term in the New Bilibid Prison when he died of a stroke in April 2021.

Revilla seems to have a charmed life, as he is enjoying the same VIP defendant privilege in his current case.

Remulla has said he would seek a meeting with Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo to discuss problems in the campaign against corruption, and presumably the execution of the Sandigan order for the return of the P124.5 million, which Revilla’s camp had challenged eight years ago.

The ombudsman is right, where’s the P124.5 million? Those in charge of the criminal justice system must dispel suspicions that part of it went to the best justice that money can buy.