It is a long road to justice in the pork barrel scam cases; precisely for that reason, we should all welcome the marking of milestones on that route. The surrender of Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. last Friday, the same day the Sandiganbayan issued an arrest warrant for him, is one such milestone. For the first time in our history, an incumbent senator has been indicted on nonpolitical charges, and will face trial while in detention. This is a noteworthy advance, for a country still struggling with a fundamental principle of modern societies: that the rules apply to all.
The civic lesson in Revilla’s surrender has been overshadowed by the entertainment value (a curious phrase, that) of his elaborate effort to avoid the indignity of arrest. Obsessive media coverage of his visits to supporters, the celebration of Mass with family and friends on the morning of his surrender, the convoy to Camp Crame with reporters and cameramen taking turns inside his commodious van—the spectacle was something the popular actor and politician could very well have directed from a familiar script. The obsession continued with coverage of his initial reactions to the conditions of his detention cell at the Philippine National Police custodial center (rats, cockroaches, migraine-inducing heat), his first meal (breakfast of rice porridge) and of the tribulations of his wife (another celebrity with a second career in politics).
He was obviously courting the sympathy of the public; “pa-victim,” as columnist Rina Jimenez David put it. But he was also laying the groundwork for the possible exercise of a legal option: to plead medical reasons and ask for detention in a more convenient location, such as a hospital with air-conditioning. He needed the media to help make his argument.
The media, in turn, followed his surrender and detention as a reflection of consuming public curiosity. The difference between before and after, between a luxurious life in his Cavite mansion and his new, cramped quarters in Crame, was dramatic. But there is a reason why news organizations played up the drama: It was the best way to show that, even if only temporarily, the rules do apply to all.
It is important to emphasize that Revilla is still only an accused (albeit of plunder and graft involving staggering amounts); he is not a prisoner but only a detainee. The available documentation and evidence should convince anyone that Revilla did in fact take full part in the pork barrel scam, but that is a matter to be judicially determined by the Sandiganbayan. His detention, then, should not be seen as a punishment (as many Filipinos already seem to think) but merely as a necessary condition of his trial.
That the detention cell is not “habitable,” in the view of Revilla’s lawyer, is not a reflection of the gravity of the senator’s alleged crimes but merely a function of the government’s long-standing priorities. We should remember that the conditions in other detention centers are far worse; indeed, in too many of them, it is difficult to distinguish those detainees whose guilt is still to be determined from those prisoners already convicted.
We do not know how long Revilla will stay in the Crame custodial center (or how long he will last). We can almost be sure that this shining example of the principle that the rules apply to all will lose its luster soon enough, and the senator who rose to fame portraying superheroes in the movies and on television will claim medical privileges. We can already hear it in his lawyer’s candid words: “He’s a senator. He should be given some kind of consideration to alleviate the conditions in his cell.”
Aside from marking the milestone of a sitting senator placed in detention, we must redouble our efforts at vigilance. The resources of a powerful and moneyed politician like Revilla (or the other senators indicted on similar plunder and graft charges, Jose “Jinggoy” Ejercito Estrada and Juan Ponce Enrile) cannot be underestimated. The public should not weary of performing its role—of monitoring the progress of the cases as closely as possible, of guarding against the granting of unwarranted privileges. For the rules to apply to all, all of us must apply the rules.