Pangasinan Vice Gov. Jose Ferdinand Calimlim and a few other local officials have backed the Office of the Ombudsman鈥檚 claim that their municipalities never received benefits from the projects allegedly financed by former Sen. Bong Revilla with pork barrel funds.
During the fourth hearing in Revilla鈥檚 plunder trial at the Sandiganbayan First Division, Office of the Special Prosecutor Director Joefferson Toribio defended the presentation of government officials to confirm the allegation.
This was despite the repeated objection of Revilla鈥檚 lawyer, Estelito Mendoza, who insisted that the nonimplementation of the Priority Development Assistance Fund projects was irrelevant to the senator鈥檚 plunder case, as it was suspected mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles who allegedly pocketed the funds.
鈥榃rong premise鈥�
At one point, Mendoza said all the interviews conducted by the Ombudsman field investigators were 鈥渋nvalid鈥� because they were based on the 鈥渨rong premise鈥� that the projects were聽 to be received from Revilla.
鈥淭hese interviews were derogatory to Senator Revilla. All of these interviews are void,鈥� he said.