EDITORIAL - A major achievement

Since Friday, Senator Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr. has been under police custody after he turned himself to the Sandiganbayan following the filing of plunder charge against him and those implicated in the P10-billion pork barrel scam.

A serious charge, plunder is non-bailable in the country and Revilla, the first senator to be detained for such offense, is expected to stay in detention while his case is being heard by the anti-graft court.

Now that Revilla had already yielded to the authorities, all eyes are now trained on Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Jinggoy Estrada, the two other main accused in the case that also involved alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Napoles.     

While Filipinos see this as a positive development in the case, they will have to wait for a longer time to eventually get justice. The quest for truth will have to go through mountains of tests as a heated and lengthy showdown will be expected in court.

Of course, the plunder case should not be the basis for us to conclude that Revilla, Estrada and Enrile are already guilty of the charge and must be condemned to suffer the grave consequences of their wrongdoings.

Their indictment would only mean all is now up to the Sandiganbayan to decide. However, as to whether there is enough evidence to warrant conviction for the three is something that the Aquino administration must sufficiently prove.

But, on the other hand, the indictment should also show that in this country, all is not yet lost in the fight against corruption that has already been plaguing every government institution for decades.

And the fact that three of the highest officials in the land now stand accused before the court of committing the highest form of fraud is already a major achievement in the effort to root out corruption in the government.