FOR a non-bailable criminal case involving P98 million, former Senator Bong Revilla only needed a loose change to buy his way out of prison on the same day the Sandiganbayan 3rd Division ruled to grant a petition for bail filed by his lawyers.
No less than the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) confirmed Revilla’s release from detention at around 6:00 Friday afternoon.
“The BJMP confirms that former Senator Ramon Bong Revilla Jr. was released from the Quezon City Jail Male Dormitory at 6:14 pm, July 31, 2026, by virtue of the release order issued by the Sandiganbayan Third Division after he posted the required bail in connection with his case,” according to BJMP spokesperson Jay Bustinera.
The anti-graft court’s 3rd Division chaired by Associate Justice Karl Miranda granted Revilla’s bail involving a P92.8-million ghost flood control project in Pandi, Bulacan.
“Grant the bail application of accused Ramon Bautista ‘Bong’ Revilla, Jr. for failure of the prosecution to establish strong evidence of guilt, insofar as it pertains to the charge of malversation through falsification of public documents, during the bail hearings and in view of existing jurisprudence,” reads part of the resolution.
“Order the provisional release of accused Ramon Bautista “Bong” Revilla, Jr. upon posting of a cash bond of Php1,000,000.00 in line with the ruling in Enrile v. Sandiganbayan (Third Division) unless he is being held for some other legal ground,” it added.
Revilla, along with former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials Brice Hernandez and Jaypee Mendoza, were charged in January with graft (pending with the anti-graft court’s 4th Division) and malversation (pending with the 3rd Division) over the alleged ghost project.
Other charges against Revilla have already been paid days after he was arrested in January this year.
Meanwhile, Ombudsman Crispin Remulla reminded Sandiganbayan that Revilla has yet to comply with the anti-graft court’s 2018 ruling ordering the former senator to return P124.5 million which “found its way to his bank account” to the national treasury.
He was cleared of plunder charges over the notoriously famous “pork barrel scam.” His co-accused, his chief of staff Richard Cambe and businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, were convicted in the same case.
“It was included in his judgment of acquittal (in plunder)… and until now, the money has yet to be returned (to the government),” Remulla was quoted in a radio interview.
In its motion filed in 2019, the Ombudsman urged the Sandiganbayan to compel Revilla to pay the civil damages because the crime was committed through the ex-senator’s office.
Interestingly, Revilla’s other co-accused in the most recent graft and malversation charges were not as lucky as the former senator.
Requests for bail by Brice Ericson Diaz Hernandez, Jaypee de Leon Mendoza, Arjay Salvador Domasig, Emelita Capistrano Juat, Juanito Coronel Mendoza, and Christina Mae Del Rosario Pineda were all denied.