MANILA, Philippines - Pork barrel fund scam whistleblower Benhur Luy surprised defense lawyers on Thursday after he submitted nine folders of documentary evidence against Senator Ramon Revilla Jr. to the Sandiganbayan supposedly detailing his illegal transactions from 2006 to 2012.
Ombudsman prosecutors, in a bail hearing before the anti-graft court’s First Division, moved to have the documents marked prompting defense counsels to object.
Luy, taking the stand again as a primary witness against Revilla, his former chief of staff Richard Cambe, and alleged pork barrel fund scam operator Janet Lim Napoles, said the documentary evidence he is submitting is a printout of the contents of his hard drive.
Joel Bodegon, the senator’s lawyer, and fellow defense counsels Remigio Ancheta and Stephen David, representing Cambe and Napoles respectively, asked the Sandiganbayan not to allow the documents to be marked as evidence.
Noting that the hard drive cannot be admitted for not passing authentication required under the electronic evidence rule, they said the documents brought by Luy were not revealed or pre-marked during the preliminary and pre-trial conferences.
Ombudsman lawyers led by Director Joefferson Toribio however explained that the prosecution came to know of the existence of the printouts, which are hard copies of digital evidence of how Revilla allegedly received kickbacks from the scheme masterminded by Napoles, only on Wednesday.
Despite strong objection from the defense, magistrates headed by First Division chairman Efren N. De La Cruz allowed the marking of the documents.
During a break, Justice Undersecretary Jose Justiniano, who is helping the prosecution handle the case, said the hard drive submitted by Luy from the national Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has been authenticated.
As to why the prosecution surprised the defense as to the printouts of the contents of the hard drive, he said no rule was violated.
“Hindi naman kailangan eh. Bakit mo kailangang i-pre-mark pa ‘yan. Strategy ‘yan,” he told reporters in an interview outside the courtroom.
David, in reaction, said Ombudsman lawyers are violating the Rules of Court in suddenly coming out with new documents to be marked.
“That’s all hearsay. In the eyes of the law, it’s all hearsay,” he said noting that the documents and the contents of the hard drive were made only in 2012 which is very easy to do because it is not a day-to-day record of the alleged transactions.
David noted that the Sandiganbayan itself had earlier issued a warning to the prosecution that only pre-marked evidence will be accepted during trail.
“Hindi puwede ‘yun, may rules tayo. May rules of court tayo,” he said believing that Ombudsman lawyers are lying on its claim that they only learned of the printed documents on Wednesday.
A Star source from the Office of the Special Prosecutor meanwhile explained that there was no intention or strategy to surprise the defense.
The source said the pre-marking of evidence is not even finished yet and the prosecution manifested during the preliminary conference that the hard drive will be among the evidence to be presented in court.
The Star source said Ombudsman prosecutors honestly did not know that Luy had a printout or summary of what is in his hard drive.
Earlier during the bail hearing, Luy continued his testimony on how Revilla allegedly pocketed rebates or kickbacks from his priority development assistance fund allocations by endorsing pork barrel funds to six Napoles non-government organizations from 2006 to 2010 including the Social Development Program for Farmers Foundation Inc. which he is president of.
Identifying endorsement letters, memoranda of agreement, and other documents shown to him by Toribio, he bared how Revilla received 50 percent in rebates or kickbacks while Napoles gets to keep as much as 32 percent.
He told the Sandiganbayan that the remaining amounts go to the implementing agencies as management fees, to Cambe, and to the heads of the implementing agencies.
Luy, as the main whistleblower in the pork barrel fund scam, is being presented to testify on how Revilla pocketed kickbacks and commissions from bogus Napoles NGOs that implemented ghost projects.