Heat and shared quarters inside the Quezon City Jail have become a source of worry for the family of former Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., according to his son, Agimat Party-list Rep. Bryan Revilla.
The younger Revilla described his father as facing difficult circumstances behind bars, pointing to the temperature inside the detention area and the fact that the former lawmaker is housed alongside other inmates in his cell.
Revilla Jr. is being held at the New Quezon City Jail Male Dormitory in Payatas, the facility designated by authorities for individuals accused in the flood control corruption cases. He surrendered to the Philippine National Police in January and was committed to the jail in connection with a non-bailable malversation charge and a graft charge tied to an alleged P92.8-million ghost flood control project in Pandi, Bulacan. After completing a seven-day medical quarantine required of newly admitted detainees, he was moved into the general population and placed in a cell shared with six other persons deprived of liberty who have no link to his cases.
Asked whether his father had crossed paths with Senator Jinggoy Estrada inside the jail, Bryan Revilla said he was not aware if the two had met. Estrada was recently brought to the same Payatas facility after his arrest over a plunder case, with the Office of the Ombudsman alleging he received P573 million in kickbacks from flood control projects.
The two men are no strangers to detention. Both were held at Camp Crame in 2014 over the pork barrel scam before they were eventually cleared of the charges against them.
