Revilla can still run for President amid plunder raps, says De Lima

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima: No legal impediment. INQUIRER PHOTO / NINO JESUS ORBETA

MANILA, Philippines–Despite facing plunder and graft charges, Sen. Bong Revilla can run for the presidency in 2016, but that depends on his sense of propriety, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said on Monday.

De Lima told reporters that there was “no legal impediment” for Revilla to run for Malacañang as long as he had not yet been convicted and the Commission on Elections (Comelec) had not disqualified him.

Revilla, Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Jinggoy Estrada are facing arrest after their indictment for plunder and graft in the Sandiganbayan over the P10-billion pork barrel scam.

A popular movie actor before his election to the Senate in 2004, Revilla is going around Metro Manila to defend himself to his fans, and has said he might run for President in 2016 even from behind bars.

Answering reporters’ questions about that on Monday, De Lima said Revilla’s decision to run for President despite the charges he was facing was a matter “addressed to his personal sense of [propriety] and sense of utmost responsibility toward upholding national interest.”

“This is plunder, the cases against them are no ordinary cases,” she added, referring to the three senators.

Plunder is a nonbailable offense and given the slow movement of cases in Philippine courts, Revilla, Estrada and Enrile are facing years in detention while undergoing trial.

‘Presidential intervention’

Plunder is punishable by life imprisonment, and Estrada is not ruling out the possibility that President Aquino will influence the court into convicting him, Revilla and Enrile.

“There is always what you call presidential intervention. Although he will not personally get involved, he can let his men do it,” Estrada told reporters on Monday in a phone-patch interview. “I’m hoping and praying that won’t happen.”

Revilla shares Estrada’s “concern” that the government might influence the justices to rule against them.

“The judges could be picked up and be used against us. I hope everything will be fair,” he said, taking a swipe at Interior Secretary Mar Roxas who, he claims, picked him up and drove him to the President’s house to be asked to vote for the conviction of Chief Justice Renato Corona at the height of the impeachment trial in the Senate in 2012.

Revilla said on Saturday that he would run for President in 2016 if there was a public clamor for it.

Revilla’s road show

Estrada said Revilla invited him to join his road show but he declined because he could not sing, a reference to Revilla’s singing an original song at the end of a privilege speech criticizing the administration last week.

Malacañang said “99.93 percent” of netizens derided Revilla’s stunt, something Revilla said he wanted to verify in his visits to depressed areas in Metro Manila.

Revilla went to the cities of Navotas and Malabon on Monday and he said he was “heartened” by the warm welcome he received from the residents.

“I thank them for their continuing support and trust in me. It’s hard to believe that they love me that much,” Revilla said. “I saw some cry. You could feel their love.”