A parallel universe?

Indicted PDAF headliners are facing imminent arrest after a long “dramedy” (drama-comedy) at the Senate. The Sandiganbayan courts have issued hold departure orders or HDOs against the 3 accused senators. Bong Revilla has been issued a warrant of arrest and has surrendered.

But the following ironic, melodramatic, perplexing and contradictory statements and actions yearn for some explanation. To wit:

Twice indicted for plunder and several counts of graft, Jinggoy Estrada turned the tables on Secretary Leila de Lima at the Commission of Appointments’ hearing. He accused her of allegedly complaining to Palawan’s fugitive ex-governor Joel Reyes that it was “gutom” (hunger) in the Commission of Human Rights (CHR). Jinggoy claimed that it was arranged for De Lima to receive a monthly one million-peso allowance from PAGCOR.

Here was an alleged plunderer badgering his accuser of corruption – the very crime he is facing! Is there anything more bewildering and bizarre?

• Bong Revilla made several privilege speeches that tested his acting mettle to the core. In one, he used a toy truck that he banged on the table to bring home his point (which I can’t remember for the life of me). Despite the stinging denigration he received from netizens, he went on to make a second speech. Here he accused the President of singling him out because of his 2016 presidential aspirations. (He must have missed counting the other 60+ co-accused of the same crimes.)

In full Panday glory, he turned his surrender into a seeming movie premiere, complete with a prayer meeting with tearful extras, a Mass with his family, and a caravan that trailed him to his final destination.

Alternating between defiance and self-pity, moral outrage and meek submission, he avowed that he is ready to be thrown in any jail in the country – at the same time that his lawyer asked that he be detained specifically in Camp Crame.

Come what may 2016, he threatens to run for President. I’m sure frontrunner VP Jojo Binay is now quaking in his boots.

• While Jinggoy and Bong were displaying all antics and gimmicks, JPE remained calculatedly cool and eerily silent, letting out only terse and cryptic statements such as “I couldn’t care less”; “I already packed my bags”; “I am ready to die in jail.”

Yet before the Sandiganbayan could rule on probable cause, he had filed a motion for bail (despite plunder being a non-bailable offense) – citing old age and a long list of infirmities.

• The common refrain from the accused trio is: deny any wrongdoing; vigorously repeat that they are confident of exoneration; and lament that this nightmare is simply the oppression of the opposition; that it’s all politics. Yet all have the biggest legal guns-for-hire on their defense teams.

Estelito Mendoza is the lawyer of JPE. They go a long way as Marcos’ cabinet members during the Martial Law regime. He has already issued a statement framing the evidence against his client as “underwhelming”. Mendoza is also credited for helping Lucio Tan win his tax evasion case against the BIR. In one TV interview, he disputes the allegation that he is one of those on the “wrong side of history.”

Jinggoy’s legal counsel is 84-year-old Jose Flaminiano, who will be remembered for his legal maneuvers during the impeachment trial of former chief justice Renato Corona. Presently, he is also one of the lawyers of CGMA. His law firm is Flaminiano, Arroyo, and Duenas. Yes, that’s Mike Arroyo.

Revilla’s lawyer is Joel Bodegon. He was also Willy Revillame’s counsel.

• After establishing that Janet Napoles is not the most honest or trustworthy person in the world and that she is the bonafide mastermind of the PDAF scam, a dwindling number of highly-incentivized but rabid yellow-haters still maintain that in year 2000 Secretary Butch Abad “mentored” Napoles to put up her dummy NGOs.

Despite solid evidence that Napoles was already using dummy companies to win the anomalous Philippine Marine Kevlar helmet contract in 1998, there are synchronized calls from militant Bayan elements and pardoned-plunderer Mayor Joseph Estrada, to charge Abad.

• For years the Sandiganbayan has rationalized the turtle-pace resolution of cases as being due to a very heavy caseload. But when the Ombudsman suggested that two special courts be set-up just to handle the PDAF high profile cases, the SB expressed a unanimous NO to the proposal that could speed up the trials. They maintain that the current process is enough.

So what could possibly explain these off-the wall events, erratic feats and contradictory babble from our leaders? Do they not realize that the public actually sees and hears what they say and do?

There is only one way these make any sense:

There must exist a parallel universe where everyone has a doppel-ganger or a double just like the science-fiction TV series “Fringe.” They found a way to cross into our dimension, and oftentimes wreak havoc. Their counterparts don’t always know what they have said and done while wearing the same face and body, hence the paradox.

It’s the most plausible explanation. Now, how do we send them back to their parallel universe? – Rappler.com