Bong Revilla suing spreaders of unreturned ‘pork’ after poll loss
Alyansa Para Sa Bagong Pilipinas senatorial candidates (File photo)
MANILA, Philippines — Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr.’s legal team is set to go after groups or individuals behind the spread of alleged misinformation about him.
The lawmaker is particularly running after persons who supposedly talked about a reported responsibility of Revilla to return the missing P124.5 million pork barrel funds.
His camp believes this report cost him a spot in the 2025 senatorial race.
Revilla ran under the administration-backed Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas slate but lost.
In a press briefing on Monday, his lawyer, Raymond Fortun, said the outgoing senator was deprived of a chance to continue serving the public.
He said the voters believed rumors surrounding his 2018 acquittal of plunder charges at the Sandiganbayan.
Revilla was acquitted in December 2018, when the Sandiganbayan Special First Division ruled that the prosecution was not able to prove his guilt.
The senator was accused of allocating P224 million from his “pork barrel,” or the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), to bogus non-government organizations owned by convicted businesswoman Janet Napoles.
“Senator Revilla had high hopes that the public will continue to trust his commitment to improve the quality of life for Filipinos and vote for him in the 2025 senatorial elections,” Fortun said.
“However, it is regrettable that his aspiration to continue to be of service to the country has been derailed due to the insidious work done by certain groups and individuals who had spread fake news [on] social media, which unfortunately [was] accepted as gospel truth by the unsuspecting public,” the counsel suspected.
“He was rightfully acquitted [of] these false charges in 2018 and in 2021 […],” he recalled.
“Notwithstanding such acquittals, certain individuals and groups during the run-up to the 2025 elections continued to vilify him in spreading posts and fake posts that he had been convicted and ordered by the Sandiganbayan to return P124,500,000,” Fortun said.
“This is a vicious lie with a clear and malevolent intent to damage Senator Revilla’s good name and reputation,” he added.
READ: Bong Revilla acquitted of plunder
Under the Sandiganbayan decision, Revilla’s two co-accused in the case —Napoles and his aide Richard Cambe — were convicted of plunder for allowing the transfer of the senator’s PDAF to the Napoles-owned NGOs.
Revilla was acquitted due to a “glaring absence of evidence” that the senator profited from the scam.
However, the Sandiganbayan was vague as to who should return the amount of P124.5 million worth of misused public funds.
It mentioned in the dispositive portion that the “accused” are asked to be “solidarily and jointly liable to return to the National Treasury.”
After the anti-graft court came out with the decision, Revilla’s lawyers maintained that he is not required to return a part of the PDAF.
They maintained that the decision cited Article 100 of the Revised Penal Code, which states that “every person criminally liable for a felony is also civilly liable.”
Since Revilla was not found criminally liable for plunder, his lawyers insisted that he is also not civilly liable and is, therefore, spared from paying./apl/abc
READ: Sandigan orders ‘accused’ to return P124-M to nat’l treasury
