Jinggoy says Bong Revilla’s prison selfie ‘no big deal’

Former Senator Jinggoy Estrada on Saturday waved off the controversy surrounding former Sen. Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr's selfie that was taken while in detention and posted on his fourth anniversary in jail.

In a radio interview on dwIZ , Estrada lamented how the public seemed to have made a big deal out of incident, which he said  even made the news. Communication devices are among the items prohibited inside jails.

"Alam mo masyado naman nama-magnify ang issue na yun, its no big deal naman," said Estrada, himself a former detainee at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center at Camp Crame where Revilla currently is.

Estrada is out on a P1.3-million bail.

"Unang una mahigpit naman talaga dun, lalo na nang dumating ang isang babaeng senador lalong humigpit. Tinanggal lahat ng karapatan namin, kahit mga bisita namin di na pinapasok after 5pm. Siguro di naman big deal para ilabas mo sa TV or diyaryo ang pagseselfie," he added, obviously refering to Sen. Leila de Lima, detained on drug charges.

Policemen confiscated a mobile phone during an inspection at Revilla's detention cell. The inspection was conducted after the former senator recently posted a Facebook entry to mark his fourth anniversary in detention.

The Facebook post has since been made unavailable.

Estrada said that Revilla was aware that he made headlines and insisted that the cellphone Revilla used was not his.

"Alam naman niya, he is aware na nasa diyaryo nga siya, pero yung cellpgone na yun, cellphone ng runner niya yun, hindi naman sa kanya yun," he said.

He also backed Revilla's wife Lani Mercado's claim that his Facebook page administrator had been the one posting on their social media accounts.

The Bacoor mayor said the selfie was an old photo of her husband, likely posted by one of the page administrators.

Estrada said Revilla's staff must have been sympathizing with him because he has been in jail for several years now.

"Lahat naman kami may admin sa Facebook accounts namin. Syempre di mo rin matatanggal sa admin niya naaawa sa amo niya na four years na sa kulungan, wala pa ring kaliwanagan kung kailan siya makakalaya. Nakikisimpatiya lang," he said.

Estrada, too, expressed sympathy for Revilla's plight, seeing as he had also been imprisoned in connection with the pork barrel scam before posting bail.

Revilla is facing a plunder charge at the Sandiganbayan over his alleged misappropriation of P224.5 million worth of pork barrel funds by channeling them to the fake foundations of scheme mastermind Janet Lim Napoles. — MDM, GMA News