Former Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. posted Php 1 million bail in his pending malversation case, but he has yet to settle Php 124.5 million in civil damages from his earlier pork barrel cases, Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla said Saturday.
Revilla was released from the Quezon City Jail on Friday evening after the Sandiganbayan Third Division allowed him to post bail in the malversation case involving an allegedly nonexistent flood control project in Pandi, Bulacan.
Remulla said the anti-graft court acquitted Revilla of plunder in 2018 but still ordered him to pay Php 124.5 million to the government. The former senator was later cleared of 16 related graft charges in 2021.
The Ombudsman said the amount remained unpaid and urged courts to closely monitor civil liabilities imposed in criminal cases involving large sums of public funds.
Revilla was among three former senators charged in 2014 over alleged kickbacks from the Priority Development Assistance Fund scheme involving businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles. Prosecutors accused him of receiving Php 224.5 million.
State lawyers had asked the Sandiganbayan in 2019 to compel Revilla to pay the civil damages, arguing that an acquittal based on reasonable doubt did not automatically erase civil liability.
Revilla now faces separate graft and malversation charges over the alleged release of at least Php 76 million for a Php 92.8-million flood control project that investigators said was never built. His camp said the grant of bail showed that the evidence of guilt was not strong.
The Ombudsman said it respected the Sandiganbayan ruling but would exhaust available legal remedies. Remulla also called for closer coordination between prosecutors and the judiciary in handling corruption cases.