Revilla lukewarm on 2016 run after losing bail plea

MANILA, Philippines – Running for president in 2016 seems to be in the backseat of detained Senator Ramon Revilla Jr.’s mind following the Sandiganbayan’s denial of his bail plea from plunder over the pork barrel scam, according to his party-mate in Lakas.

Leyte Representative Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, the national president of the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (CMD), said he visited Revilla at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center and the beleaguered lawmaker seemed to be more focused on his defense.

“That’s the farthest thing from his mind right now,” Romualdez said of Revilla’s putative presidential run under Lakas.

“He (Revilla) appears to be more focused on his legal defense, his spiritual well-being and his family,” he added.

Romualdez made the statement after Revilla’s bail bid was denied by the court due to strong evidence that he committed plunder.
Asked if Revilla remains the party’s viable candidate despite his charges, Romualdez said: “It’s hard to say. I don’t know what his plans are.”

“Obviously, right now the senator is facing his legal battles. While that was a query on a speculative plan, we are not thinking of that right now… We have still a lot of parochial concerns right now in our respective district and areas,” he added.

Revilla, who is Lakas chairman, is detained as he stands trial for plunder and graft for allegedly diverting his Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) to the bogus foundations of Janet Lim-Napoles only be funneled to ghost projects for kickbacks.

Revilla has been open about his plans to run for a higher office in 2016 even as he is accused of plunder. The Lakas party had also originally vouched Revilla to be its standard bearer, but that was before the senator was implicated in the country’s biggest corruption scandal to date.

A popular action movie hero who was elected to the Senate in 2004, Revilla had been going around impoverished communities in Cavite and Metro Manila days before his arrest, defending himself and talking about running for president in 2016.He even said he would run for president even he is behind bars “if there’s a public clamor for it.”

Revilla topped the 2010 senatorial elections with over 19 million votes.

Lakas president Romualdez also declined to comment on talk that the party would coalesce with the opposition United Nationalist Alliance, whose standard bearer in 2016 is Vice President Jejomar Binay.

“We’ll wait for the developments of next year to unfold but we’re always open. We’re always ready to talk,” he said.

“Anything is possible in politics,” Romualdez added.