Bong Revilla’s Whining: Insulting to a Majority of Filipinos

Bong Revilla voluntarily surrendered after a warrant of arrest was issued when the Sandiganbayan found sufficient evidence against him.

He was put into a furnished 35 square meter “cell” made entirely of tiles with its own private bathroom, kitchen and dining room.

People quickly noted how much better off Bong Revilla is compared to the bunkhouses prepared for Yolanda Victims who were only given 17 sqm of space with no furniture, no finishing, no private kitchen or bathroom.   Whole families were expected to cram into that tiny bunkhouse space and be grateful for it while the suspected thief of over 200 million pesos is alone in relative luxury.

Despite his new living conditions being significantly better than Yolanda victims, after just a few short hours, the constant whining and complaining from Bong began in earnest. Details of his complaints are covered in great detail by ABS-CBN probably in a bid to try to get sympathy to support his claim that he’s being politically persecuted.

It’s so hot and humid I’m getting migraines. I need an air cooler in here.

Eww…There are so many rats and cockroaches!

Sounds like a spoiled sorority girl, right?

Well, it’s not.  It’s the man who claims to represent the masses.  The man who claims to understand their plight and will protect them.

Here’s the rub.

Majority of hardworking Filipinos live in worse conditions on a daily basis due, in large part, to corrupt politicians diverting funds meant for improving their lives.

The PDAF fund Senator Bong and his colleagues are suspected of diverting was supposed to be earmarked for the poor farmers devastated by typhoon Ondoy.

Have you ever lived with farmers?  I have had the honor of living with them once because of the immersion program required by Ateneo.  We lived a couple of days with a proud and hardworking farming family.  Their house was small and made mostly of bamboo.  They have no access to bathrooms or running water.  For water, they need to pump water from a well.  They cook outdoors.   There were no roads and no telephones.  Even basic services like hospitals and schools are miles away. They do backbreaking labor and are at the mercy of the weather because politicians say they don’t have money to fund irrigation or free storehouses for their crops in their town.  If it doesn’t rain, they starve.  If it rains too much, they starve.

You don’t even have to look beyond the borders of Metro Manila.

My husband was assigned to the urban poor for immersion.  His host was a hardworking God-fearing nurse.   A NURSE in a hospital.  She lived in an urban poor community because it’s the only place she could afford to live in on her salary and still send her children to school.  She and her children live in a very small area and all sleep on one small bed together.  Her husband was murdered a few steps away from their home in a case of mistaken identity.

It’s not true that the people living in urban poor communities are all jobless and lazy.  For the most part, the people living in urban poor communities are gainfully employed, contributing members of society forced to live in poor living conditions where very little natural light can penetrate and rats and cockroaches abound.   All because the government can’t give them affordable housing within the city OR cheap, efficient and reliable public transport from the houses in the outskirts of town that they can afford.

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Senator Bong:

As your punishment for being suspect for stealing hundreds of millions of pesos from taxpayers, you are living the life of plenty of Filipinos who are doing the best they can given the circumstances they are in… circumstances that are formed in LARGE PART because of politicians like you who cannot explain where the money citizens have entrusted to your care to use for the improvement of the country have gone.

Actually your jail is even better than daily living conditions of a lot of Filipinos and yet you continue to whine and complain.

This “crisis”, in your wife’s words, is one of your own doing.  No amount of Bible passages on shirts or prayer meetings can erase the stain of greed that marks your hands.

So Shut up, stop pandering and playacting for the media, and for once in your life, try to feel shame for what you’ve done instead of whining about how poor and persecuted you are.  This isn’t one of your movies.

Shame on you and your arrogance in proclaiming “you will rise again”.

In other countries, politicians would bow out and resign at the first suspicion of dishonesty.  Take a page from them and just disappear from politics.

It’s the honorable thing to do.

But then again, there is no honor among thieves right?  So I guess you’re just showing your true nature.