Malversation, graft hearings vs Revilla, co-horts commence at Sandiganbayan

Hearings into the malversation and graft charges against former senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla and former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials were carried out at Sandiganbayan this Tuesday.

Revilla was not present in the separate proceedings of the Third and Fourth Divisions of the anti-graft court as he posted a ₱90,000 bail for the graft charge while the malversation case remains non-bailable.

Last month, hearings were undertaken for the former senator to be granted the ability to post bail where witnesses were presented by the prosecution to establish guilt.

The case in question arose from a ₱92.8 million ghost flood control project in Pandi, Bulacan tagged as Project 25cc0299 with Revilla placed as its proponent.

The decision on his petition for bail is set to be released by Wednesday, 6 May.

In the first trial into the malversation case, DPWH records custodian Jason Cruz was once again called to the stand to hand over a logbook that had details related to the project.

Cruz was subsequently excused from the hearing due to a lack of any other knowledge regarding the specifics of the project.

Being the only witness scheduled for the day, the defense then proceeded to request the suspension of the court’s upcoming hearing on 12 and 13 May as the Office of the Ombudsman was set to embark on a week-long celebration for its anniversary.

Sessions on the case are set to resume on 19 May.

On the other hand, the Fourth Division of the anti-graft court resumed its hearings into the case of graft related to the same flood control project.

There, SYMS Construction liaison officer Monica Ocampo-Santos was also brought back to testify where she presented her judicial affidavit.

Santos, the niece of SYMS owner Sally Santos, once again alleged that former DPWH engineer Brice Hernandez received millions of cash from the company.

In one such delivery, Hernandez was supposedly given P299 million in cash that was contained in boxes of groceries.

Santos also denied collecting any compensation from the millions of deliveries that she allegedly organized.