I agree with Akbayan Rep. Walden Belo that Sen. Ramong “Bong” Revilla Jr. was “delusional” in talking about running for Malacañang from jail in 2016, saying that desperate people are “prone to delusions.”
Revilla’s first major delusion is his foolish belief that in his hour of reckoning, God is on the side of those accused of plundering the national treasury.
Emblazoned on his t-shirt during a rally in his Bacoor mansion shortly after the Sandiganbayan ordered the issuance of an arrest warrant against him are the words from the Holy Scripture:
“The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?”
When Senator Revilla, together with some senators and congressmen, received kickbacks during the period 2007 to 2009 for the illegal use of their pork barrel funds, I doubt if he claimed that the Lord was on his side when he stole the people’s money.
In other more enlightened countries, government officials accused of high crimes would immediately resign for reasons of delicadeza. In Japan, government functionaries would commit suicide or hara-kiri when caught committing crimes against the national interest.
But the tragedy of our country is that the corrupt and the plunderers, instead of resigning from office, would have the gall to announce their ambition to run for the highest post of the land.
“I will run if the people demand it,” Revilla said. “Who knows for the first time, we will have a president who is a prisoner.”
Perhaps, Revilla had in mind Antonio Trillanes IV, who won a Senate seat in the 2007 elections while in prison for having staged a failed sedition against then President Arroyo.
But if Revilla would cast away his delusion, he would realize that Trillanes won because of his “seditious” acts against the hated regime of then President Arroyo. No such hatred exists today against President Noynoy Aquino. On the contrary, Revilla is fighting a highly popular and credible president.
Besides, Sonny Trillanes was accused of committing a political offense against a corrupt and an illegitimate government.
To the Filipino voters, it was a patriotic and principled act.
Today, Revilla is accused of stealing the people’s money, which to the ordinary voter is an abhorrent and outrageous betrayal of the public trust.
I refuse to believe that we are a people doomed and so stupid enough to send accused plunderers to Malacañang.
Revilla entertains another delusion that if the people demand it, he will run for the presidency. The way his movie fans and some of his fellow Caviteños shrieked and shouted when they accompanied him to the Sandiganbayan to surrender may delude him into thinking that the “people” are already demanding that he run for president.
After consulting his followers and movie fans, Revilla will finally consult God who will tell him to run for president to save this country. This will be the ultimate and disastrous delusion. I forgot the name of a renowned author who said:
“If you are talking to God, that is prayer. But if God is talking to you, that is insanity.” Democrito C. Barcenas