(UPDATE) THE trial of the malversation through falsification case filed against former senator Bong Revilla and six other people before the Sandiganbayan started on Tuesday.
The case stemmed from the alleged ghost project in Pandi, Bulacan.
The prosecution presented Myra Torio and Jose Jayson Cruz as witnesses before the Sandiganbayan’s Third Division where the case was raffled off.
The court’s ruling on the bail petitions, including that of Revilla, is expected to be out soon.
Most of the accused filed bail petitions and the court conducted a bail hearing on several dates starting April 6, 2026. The court’s ruling on bail was expected soon.
“We will not preempt what the court’s assessment will be but we are very confident in our position,” Reody Anthony Balisi, one of Revilla’s lawyers, said in an interview with reporters in April, saying no evidence linked his client to the alleged ghost project.
Aside from Revilla, those with bail petitions were Juanito Mendoza, Brice Hernandez, Arjay Domasig, Emelita Juat, and Christina Mae Pineda.
Meanwhile, the trial of the graft case resumed on Tuesday afternoon. The prosecution presented as witness Monica Louis Ocampo-Santos, liaison officer of SYMS Construction.
In February 2026, the Sandiganbayan Fourth Division entered a not guilty plea for Revilla after he refused to enter a plea in the arraignment in the graft case. Domasig and Juanito Mendoza pleaded not guilty. On Jan. 28, 2026, Hernandez, Jaypee Mendoza and Pineda pleaded not guilty. Juat pleaded not guilty on Jan. 23, 2026.
