Did Sen. Revilla reveal the whole truth?

What happens to our nation when two probable guilty par-ties clash in the hallowed hall of the Philippine Senate? That's ex-actly what the Filipino people saw when Senator Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr. gave a privilege speech the other day in order to clean up his tattered image as one of the senators tagged by Pork Barrel Queen, Janet Lim Napoles.

We already heard on TV of that infamous ride with Sen. Re-villa and Department of Interior & Local Government Secretary Manuel "Mar" Roxas on their way to a breakfast meeting at the Bahay Pangarap in Malacañang Park so Sen. Revilla could meet with PNoy Aquino. The fact, as reported by Sen. Revilla himself, that Sec. Roxas ditched his security men and drove the vehicle himself and asked Sen. Revilla to ride in the back was at best mysteriously queer. This was an effort by Sec. Mar to tell Sen. Revilla to his face something that he didn't want witnesses to hear.

As we said, we already heard this story before, but the new twist is that, Sen. Revilla took photographs of this ride on his cell-phone, something that Sec. Mar Roxas didn't know until this was revealed in the privilege speech the other day. Now Sen. Revilla gave a new tag to Sec. Roxas as "Boy Pick-up." In his privilege speech, Sen. Revilla claimed his innocence saying, "For the record Mr. President,, I have nothing to do with this scam, those whistleb-lowers, nor Janet Lim Napoles. I have no dealings and transactions with them. It's all lies."

Then Sen. Revilla showed a PowerPoint presentation showing photographs of his signatures and those that were presented as his signature by the whistleblowers. Now whether Sen. Revilla is lying or not, it is up to the courts to decide. Obviously he is using his advantage of being a senator to try and cleanse his name from this pork mess. But the problem is, this case has not yet been filed in our courts of law and the longer they delay the filing of this case, the longer this issue won't get resolved soon.

In reply to the privilege speech of Sen. Revilla, DOJ Sec. Leila de Lima insisted that the evidence against him was strong, that there was enough basis to file a case against the senator before the Office of the Ombudsman for his role in the pork barrel scam. So the question begging for an answer is what's taking the DOJ so long to file those cases against these so-called corrupt senators? Justice delayed is Justice denied, di ba?   

The problem with that privilege speech is that Sen. Revilla is only telling us his story on a "what-you-need-to-know basis", which in my book is not the whole truth and nothing but the truth. We who supported ousted Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona already had our numbers in the Senate that he would not be impeached. Frankly speaking, we were quite sure then that those senators on the side of CJ Corona would hold the fort.

This is why we believed that the president, through his "Boy pick up" Sec. Roxas, went out of their way to talk with each Senator and literally "convince or cajole" them to change their vote and impeach CJ Corona. Suddenly, those numbers in the Senate who were supporting CJ Corona changed and the rest is history. That PNoy and Sec. Mar Roxas exerted extra effort to lobby for the ouster of CJ Corona is already a given. So what Sen. Revilla revealed in his privilege speech was really nothing new.

Of course the reaction of the palace Rasputins on Sen. Revilla's speech was spelled out by Presidential Communications Operations Office Sec. Herminio Coloma Jr. who accused the senator of using his privilege speech for "accusations and insinuations." Come now, isn't that what all senators and con-gressmen do every single day when Congress is in session? While it is true and I agree with Sec. Coloma that Sen. Revilla should be accountable for the proper use of public funds, this is also true of PNoy who many believe also misused the PDAF or pork barrel in order to cajole Congress to sign the impeachment document.

The fact that the president himself exerted extra effort to have CJ Corona impeached is in my book an impeachable offense. But then for as long as the allies of PNoy are still in power in Con-gress, we will never see these people impeach PNoy. But I predict that the moment President Aquino is no longer president of this country, you can bet that some of those congressmen or senators would surface and tell the Filipino people the whole truth about how CJ Corona was arbitrarily removed from his office.

The Year 2014 has just begun and we are already getting a fresh round of this media circus putting on the block the in-fighting of the so-called political elite. Because of the pork barrel, we have lost our trust and confidence in the branches of Philippine government; the Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary. I dare say, it is time for a change and hopefully that change will happen this year. Abangan!

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