Sen. Bong Revilla is now the toast of the poor for being their champion in getting out of the way one hurdle to a better life and a better future. He authored a bill that is now a law that bans the old policy or practice that has been the bane of thousands of financially hard -up in schools: no permit, no exam.
He now joins the two well-known Aquinos, look-alike kin, in Senate, the late Ninoy and his nephew, Bam, for that popular and populist distinction. The former initiated the study now, pay later plan, when he was easily thought of as promising presidential dream candidate to challenge a strong, sitting president. The latter followed in his footsteps decades later and worked to further enrich that legacy.
Unfortunately, neither became a candidate or president. Ninoy’s eventual martyrdom during the time of the first Marcos caused him his life and the aimed presidency. Whatever political plans Bam had were dashed to the ground when the opposition was crushed by a strong man rule preceding the return to power of a second Marcos inning,the son. His ascent to the presidency has probably set back , for now, that latent plan.
Revilla, who is still casting a moist eye on that target, has hit recently a landmark, not landmine, in his legislative agenda. The new law he authored has made him a household name anew, apart from his film exploits as an “agimat” master, and keep that dream alive, no doubt
Otto von Bismark, the unifier of the German empire, said politics is the art of the possible, attainment and the next best. In other words, it is the realm of the changing fortunes.
Not too long ago, Revilla was among those charged with their hands caught in the cookie jar known as the PDAF scam. In a strange decision, the court found him “sinless” of the crime being imputed but nevertheless him ordered to return to the government the money was supposed to have gained from it. Only the Philippines.
Whatever stigma or stain that wild accusation or strange decision had on his reputation can now be forgotten or considered erased with a new law that will endear him to millions across the poverty-challenged land. He can dream again.
There was a time when the old policy or practice stood in the way of many a student. Without the money to tide them over every semestral challenge, most if not many are not allowed to take the exams unless they had the necessary permit. Some were resourceful genius by force or need. They would borrow exam booklets from classmates who could afford to buy them without limit. Soon, that came to an end, too, when the schools came to know of the simple strategy.
Revilla must have come to know of the student old-time ordeal from research or second-hand tales. They abound in storied narratives that every true bleeding heart in politics can truly identify with – with an apology to those who don’t believe in ending a sentence with a proposition.
With this new law tucked under his belt, Revilla can now start to think of other new legislative concerns to further bolster him as a real champion of the poor and compete with another popular senator, Raffy Tulfo, in race a for a political go-ahead like being top senator, even president. He may not look as generous on television real time episodes, he can just be as powerful with his other advantages such as his good look.
With a new law under name, the bet is off.
Who knows Revilla’s spinmasters may b e planning a grander scheme of elevating the senator to the stature as man of the year, apart from being a wife-loving, if not dominated, policeman in sit-coms. They understand the multiplier effects of media in a time and age of visual technology where a lot of things can be made right or wrong to the audience. Voters are so easily manipulated now.
Where does that leave others aspirants, like the vice president and head of the department of education, Sara Duterte?
You can’t write her off, for sure,with his father’s larger-than-life posture in the background. But it is both an asset or a liability, with the latter growing more and more with the passage of time and history. The secret should be in the recovery of that once powerful pull on the electorate.
The young Marcos president has grown adept to his predecessor’s antics he can just laugh them off without losing his beat or his popular ratings. The vulnerability has shifted direction, with his predecessor and consequently the apparent heir getting the fallout and costing her poise. Backstep can have its fault line.
Like a worthy challenger waiting for opportunity, Revilla knows when to make the right move. And the new law signals how he intends to do it. If he continues to manage his political alliances as good as he has been doing, especially with former President Arroyo and the Dutertes, he might just hit the political jackpot. That is essentially Bismark’s point of the big picture.
Time was when John Mills’s caveat about the risk of poor intellect likely among those elected in a respresentative system such as ours. The criteria have changed, or as PBBM intimated in relation to the Wesr Philippine Sea dispute with China, new paradigms are a way to the future. America, as the champion of democracy in the West, is facing its own challenge to its old time values in leadership and politics.
The Philippines needs to tweak its own. Revilla is apparently reading the handwriting on the walls and poverty has its antiquated ills still clearly written on it. He’s resonating with an old solution that worked and will still work in the future. That puts him right there on the pedestal where he deserves being man of the year.
