MANILA, Philippines - Detained Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr. yesterday asked the Sandiganbayan to grant him temporary freedom so he could attend his daughter’s high school graduation on Saturday.
Revilla, who is facing plunder charges for allegedly pocketing millions in commissions from the pork barrel scam along with Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Juan Ponce Enrile, urged the anti-graft court to allow him to be with his daughter, Ma. Franzel Loudette Bautista, on her special day.
Last week, the Sandiganbayan granted Estrada’s request to attend his son’s high school graduation at OB Montessori in Greenhills, San Juan. The justices said they granted Estrada a three-hour furlough because the absence of a father in such an event “will be traumatic for the child.”
Reody Anthony Balisi, a lawyer for Revilla, said the graduation ceremony of the senator’s daughter at De La Salle Zobel in Ayala Alabang, Muntinlupa will be from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. But the assembly time is at 2:30 p.m.
Revilla asked the anti-graft court for a five-hour furlough, from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.
His daughter will receive the St. Mutien Marie Award, the St. De La Salle Award, and the Alfonso Yuchengco National Discipline Award.
“As proud father, Sen. Revilla would want to share this momentous occasion with his daughter during this milestone in her life,” read the motion, which will be heard tomorrow.
Jinggoy scores vs AMLC
Meanwhile, the camp of Estrada has scored legal points after an Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) investigator testified that the probe on his bank accounts could not determine if the transactions had anything to do with commissions he allegedly received from the pork barrel fund scam.
Estrada’s lawyers said the prosecution panel’s witness, AMLC prober Orlando Negradas Jr., admitted before the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division on Monday that its findings on the senator’s bank accounts are mere guesswork.
“Now it appears that our belief that they are only speculating is true,” lawyer Alexis Abastillas-Suarez said.
During the bail hearing, Negradas confessed under questioning by Associate Justice Alexander Gesmundo that while AMLC can monitor and scrutinize inflows and outflows of money between bank accounts.
The witness explained that the investigation used three different methods in analyzing bank documents AMLC gathered in relation to Estrada’s bank accounts, which include deposit and withdrawal, verification and multiple accounts.
SC junks JPE petition
The Supreme Court (SC) has junked the petition of Enrile on the three-month suspension imposed on him by the Sandiganbayan while he is on trial for plunder in connection with the pork barrel scam.
SC justices dismissed Enrile’s petition for being moot and academic due to supervening events.
“The court noted that as of Dec. 1, 2014, Senator Enrile’s preventive suspension had been served and lifted; as a result, the Sandiganbayan’s orders to this effect had served its purpose,” SC spokesman Theodore Te told reporters.
In his petition filed in October last year, Enrile asked the high court to issue a temporary restraining order enjoining the Sandiganbayan from implementing its order that became final in a resolution issued on Aug. 22.
He said the anti-graft court committed grave abuse of discretion in granting the motion filed by ombudsman prosecutors.
Invoking the constitutional separation of powers of judicial and legislative branches, the 90-year-old Enrile argued that the Sandiganbayan and ombudsman have no authority to suspend members of Congress. – With Edu Punay