Revilla, Estrada and Marcos

Marites Dañguilan Vitug

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Like fathers, like sons

Look where this phenomenon called “name recall” got us. The 2 top-grossing senators in the pork barrel mega-scam—Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. and Jinggoy Estrada—own surnames that have been grafted into Philippine politics by way of show business. (Juan Ponce Enrile, the 3rd top grosser, is another story.)  

Revilla channelled P413 million of his pork and Estrada, P191 million, to fake NGOs linked to Janet Napoles, the Commission on Audit found out. Their plunder cases are pending with the Office of the Ombudsman. 

Another senator tainted by the scandal, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., appears to be in a minor league compared to the stars. State audit reports show that he endorsed P100 million of his pork to dubious NGOs, some of which are creations of Napoles. Marcos did this through the National Livelihood Development Corporation, one of the favorite conduits for PDAF. Marcos claimed, though, that his signatures were forged.

Every election season, those with popular family names make it, those whose surnames belong to fathers, spouses and siblings who dug their heels in politics. Others belong to both politics and show business, fields that seamlessly blend into each other in the Philippines.

The billion-peso PDAF fraud, which has become a turning point in our politics, is a painful reminder that choosing candidates based solely on marquee names is bad for the country. Political parties should stop spicing up their line-ups with these types whose only claim to fame is their surname. And, most of all, the public should reject them.

This is not the first time, of course, that we’ve learned this lesson. But this time around, we’re learning it big-time. Now, we have billions of reasons to say no to candidates who strut around with their mass-appeal surnames —and not much else.

Amnesia 

Many would have thought that we’ve had traumatic experiences with past presidents Ferdinand Marcos and Joseph Estrada. Wrong. Many still voted for their sons into the Senate. 

Let’s look back. 

Marcos was estimated to have embezzled worth US$5 to $10 billion in his 20 years in office. How did he amass all this? The World Bank says that, among others, Marcos directly raided the national treasury and financial institutions, squeezed kickbacks and commissions from firms working in the Philippines, and skimmed off foreign aid. 

In his 2 years in office, Estrada accumulated $87.3 million in unexplained wealth derived from bribes, kickbacks, and protection money from illegal gambling. He was convicted of plunder but this turned out to be short-lived. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo granted him pardon a month after his conviction.

By making Bongbong and Jinggoy senators of the republic, it’s as if the country got amnesia. We forgot their fathers’ sins and tucked these away into the farthest recesses of our minds, never to be retrieved again.

One of 70+ children

Bong Revilla, for his part, made it to the Senate because of show biz fame and pedigree. He is one of 72 to 80 children (by more than a dozen women) of movie actor and former Senator Ramon Revilla Sr. Those who know the old Revilla say that he takes pride in the fact that he supports all his children. 

One of his many families, it was reported, received a monthly allowance of P1 million. Multiply this many times over, then that’s a hefty sum for the old man to fork out, past his halcyon days as a movie actor and politician.  

While no corruption charges have been filed against the old Revilla, various news reports have cast doubt on his integrity. He was a senator for 12 years, during which he headed the public works committee, said to be a plum post. 

When he left the Senate, he chaired the Philippine Estates Authority and Philippine Reclamation Authority, known to be lucrative positions. He was always in the good graces of whoever was in power. He served in the PEA, his last job, till his early 80s.   

Columnist Ellen Tordesillas opined that Revilla is an amazing study for business students on how a movie actor parlayed a showbiz career into politics, winding up with a financial bonanza. 

Entitlement in DNA

Pop psychology says that children take after their parents. They imbibe their values and inhale their daily work ethic. They grow into the lifestyles of their parents, get to enjoy fabulous riches and the trappings that come with public office. All this entitlement becomes part of their DNA. 

By the time they follow in the footsteps of their parents, there is no longer any divide between right and wrong. Boundaries are blurred and a strong sense of entitlement prevails. 

We hear of only a few cases of children rebelling against their parents, pursuing opposite paths. They didn’t like what they saw and they chose to be different.

But in the still-unfolding multi-billion pork barrel scandal, the sons did not stray from  their fathers. – Rappler.com

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

  

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Marites Dañguilan Vitug

Marites is one of the Philippines’ most accomplished journalists and authors. For close to a decade, Vitug – a Nieman fellow – edited 'Newsbreak' magazine, a trailblazer in Philippine investigative journalism. Her recent book, 'Rock Solid: How the Philippines Won Its Maritime Case Against China,' has become a bestseller.