By Benjamin Pulta

PLUNDER CASE. Former senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. leaves Sandiganbayan on Feb. 9, 2025 after his arraignment and pre-trial were reset. The Department of Justice prosecutors on Tuesday (March 17, 2026) gave Revilla until March 30 to dispute the allegations of four new respondents in the plunder charges filed against him in connection with the anomalous flood control projects. (PNA photo by Joan Bondoc)

MANILA – A panel of state prosecutors gave former senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr.’s lawyers until March 30 to dispute allegations of four additional respondents in the plunder charges filed by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) against him in connection with the anomalous flood control projects.

This, after the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) prosecutors approved the NBI’s motion to include the four new respondents in Revilla’s plunder case.

“Senator Revilla was given until March 30 to file his counter affidavit to controvert the allegations in the counter-affidavits filed by four new respondents,” Department of Justice (DOJ) Polo Martinez told reporters.

Martinez said the panel also turned down the opposition filed by Revilla’s camp against the inclusion of the four new respondents, namely former Department of Public Works and Highway (DPWH) engineers Denryl Caesar Cortuna, Manny Bulusan, Ruel Umali and Arturo Gonzales Jr., to the case.

He said the inclusion of the four is needed for the “orderly administration of justice.”

Martinez said the first batch of the ghost projects cases, involving the SYMS Construction Trading, have already been filed before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court and the Sandiganbayan.

The charges originally filed by the NBI’s Bulacan South District Office (Busdo) are for malversation, perjury, graft, and falsification.

Former DPWH undersecretary Roberto Bernardo has claimed that Revilla received kickbacks in exchange for endorsing flood control projects. (PNA)