Anti-pork rally in Cavite skips Revilla mansion

SAN PEDRO, Laguna — Militants from Cavite province headed to Manila Monday noon, as the rest of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) members prepared for pockets of regional protests in Southern Tagalog (ST) in support of the “Million People March” organized to call for an end to anomalous pork barrel system.

In Cavite, about 400 protesters, wearing shirts marked with names of political party lists, held simultaneous rallies in Rosario town, Dasmariñas City, and Bacoor City on Monday morning to demand the scrapping of the pork barrel system.

The protesters, however, skipped the ancestral mansion of Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr.’s family along the Aguinaldo Highway in Bacoor City. Revilla was among the senators being linked to alleged pork barrel scam brains Janet Lim-Napoles.

“Not today. Our assault against the Revillas and the rest of the congressmen in ST (Southern Tagalog) should come later,” said Bayan-ST spokesperson Andriane Ng.

Ng admitted that local militant groups in Cavite had allied with the Revillas during the May midterm elections. Senator Revilla had also endorsed the senatorial bid of former Bayan Rep. Teddy Casiño in one of his political sorties.

“We are still in the process of engaging them (Revillas) but that doesn’t mean we are compromising our stand against the pork barrel,” Ng noted in a phone interview.

In Laguna, mobile propaganda teams set off early Monday to invite people in joining the 3 p.m. rallies at Crossing in Calamba City and at Balibago Complex in Sta. Rosa City.

Ng said the campaign would not end here as they have also scheduled regional rallies, the next on Sept. 9, which he said would “target” local politicians who allegedly misused their Priority Development  Assistance Fund (PDAF).