Bong Revilla Jr. gets pass to visit ailing dad

MANILA, Philippines — The Sandiganbayan yesteday granted the request of former senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. to temporarily leave his jail cell today to visit his father, who remains confined in a hospital due to pneumonia.

In a resolution, the court’s First Division allowed Revilla to stay at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City for five hours or from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.

In his motion filed before the court on Wednesday, Revilla said his 91-year-old father, former senator Ramon Revilla Sr. (real name Jose Bautista), was admitted to the hospital on Nov. 14 and remains confined there due to aspiration pneumonia. 

The First Division noted in its ruling that the Office of the Ombudsman’s prosecution panel did not object to Revilla’s motion during its hearing yesterday morning.

Revilla has been detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center since June 2014 for plunder and graft charges in connection with his alleged involvement in the multibillion-peso pork barrel fund scam.

He is accused of receiving P224.5-million worth of kickbacks from alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles in exchange for allocating his Priority Development Assistance Fund or pork barrel to the latter’s supposed fake non-government organizations.