Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — Sen. Bong Revilla has been in jail since June 2014, but until now it is still uncertain when his actual trial in court will begin.
Now the senator’s case suffers another delay.
The Sandiganbayan on Thursday (February 4) cancelled for the second time a pre-trial hearing on the plunder case against Revilla, his co-accused and former chief of staff Richard Cambe, and their alleged cohorts.
According to the defense lawyers, they are not finished with marking documentary evidence.
Cambe’s lawyer, Atty. Michael Ancheta, said the exhibits are “voluminous.”
“There are so many exhibits, in fact they are confusing because many of these exhibits carry quintuplet letter marking and it would really take months to mark them.”
Documentary evidence are marked before any hearing can begin so documents are easily identified when they are presented during the course of the trial.
Furthermore, the clerk of court has to be present when pieces of evidence are marked. The pace of marking the documents is also dependent on when the court is available for the procedure.
The prosecution is done marking their evidence, but it also took them almost a year to finish.
The prosecution said they are now ready for the trial, but the way they see it, the defense is not.
“It is the accused who is in jail so if there is anybody who should endeavor to fast track the hearings, it should be the defense. But I think its the other way around, it’s the prosecution that has been manifesting to the court that it wants the case to be set on trial,” said Atty. Joefferson B. Toribio from the Office of the Ombudsman.
Revilla’s lawyers said they have about 40 more documents to mark but they still need the court to issue a subpoena for these papers.
These include transcripts of stenographic notes from senate blue ribbon committee hearings on the pork barrel scam, and annual audit reports on several implementing agencies of pork projects.
According to Atty. Anthony Balisi, Revilla’s lawyer, they asked the court a week ago for a subpoena.
“We were constrained to request for the subpoena after we have exerted reasonable efforts to obtain these documents from the proper custodians, and in fact this is the right of Senator Revilla as an accused.”
While the marking of evidence seems to be the reason behind delays, both the prosecution and the defense agree it is a part of the legal process that cannot be overlooked.
Revilla’s pre-trial is reset to March 7.
He is among the lawmakers facing plunder and graft charges for allegedly channeling their pork funds to ghost projects of non-government organizations (NGOs), founded by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, in exchange for kickbacks.
Aside from Revilla, Sens. Juan Ponce Enrile and Jinggoy Estrada face the same charges, together with Napoles and Enrile’s former chief of staff, Atty. “Gigi” Reyes.
