Revilla should have been convicted, too

This is in reaction to the news of former senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr.’s acquittal by the Sandiganbayan.

Revilla was charged with pocketing P224 million from his Priority Development Assistance Fund allocation in a multibillion-peso scam run by one of his fellow defendants in the case, convicted plunderer, Janet Lim Napoles.

She, and his chief of staff, Richard Cambe, were sentenced to 40 years in prison each for the crime.

Cambe took the cudgels for his boss for having allegedly forged Revilla’s signature.

The Anti-Money Laundering Council records showed that more than P87 million were deposited in Revilla’s and his immediate relatives’ accounts from April 6, 2006, to April 10, 2010, the source of which he failed to justify or explain.

Will Cambe spend the rest of his life in jail for someone he is not closely related with?

If he has an iota of self-love, he should emulate Donald Trump’s former lawyer and operator Michael Cohen, who swore to take a bullet for his boss but is now spilling the beans on Trump’s alleged felonious activities and cooperating with special prosecutor Robert Mueller, in an attempt to redeem himself or to protect his family.

Another Trump ally who is cooperating with Mueller is Michael Flynn, who may be given leniency for his explosive exposés against the US president.

Revilla was acquitted by the Sandiganbayan, but is being asked by the same court, together with convicts Cambe and Napoles, to return P124.5 million in civil liabilities.

That means he was party to the crime of plunder, and should have been convicted as well.

RAMON MAYUGA,
ramon.mayuga49@gmail.com