The fault of Bong Revilla is in our stars

Finally, Bong Revilla is in jail. Many, particularly his critics, are now celebrating his end. They are now saying that he is finished.

 

But on the other hand, it may also be possible that this is just the beginning of his resurrection and redemption.

 

Bong Revilla, action star, TV host, former governor, and now senator-jailbird, has become the poster boy for the Government’s mantra of “Daang Matuwid.” He is Exhibit 1 that this Government is indeed serious in cleaning the stables dirtied by greed and corruption. His incarceration, albeit in a cell more comfortable than the living spaces of those of our freer citizens, is worth highlighting as a PowerPoint slide during the upcoming State of the Nation Address of the President when Congress reopens.

 

That would be a most appropriate venue, for it will be an address delivered in a hall where Bong Revilla as senator in fact belongs. The message is going to be powerful. The President, delivering his SONA, talking about the senator, whose assigned seat would be vacant, like that one supposed to be occupied by his party mate, the Honorable Representative from Pampanga. Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Revilla’s political patroness whom he thanked and praised during his privileged speech in the Senate, the last he delivered before his surrender, is now also under hospital arrest. Indeed, his incarceration would be another feather in the cap of this Government in its drive towards the straight path.  

 

The President’s SONA will most likely tell the whole nation of this prized catch, of how nobody is above the law.  

 

But the speech will also definitely have a chilling effect on many others who are seated in the hall, senators and representatives whose names have been mentioned by Janet Napoles and Benhur Luy. While Bong Revilla is Exhibit 1 for the masses thirsting for blood, he will be likewise Exhibit 1 for both Houses of Congress that are running scared of a possible political fallout, or worse, a political bloodbath.

 

But then again, the President will have to hold his punches. After all, he is not entirely squeaky clean, and so are his allies.

 

And this is precisely what worries Vice President Binay more than the Liberal Party.

 

While many of us would see the Gentleman from Cavite in big trouble, let us not forget that his incarceration has provided a strategic and powerful template from where a narrative of redemption can be crafted. And lest we turn cocky and dismiss this as an absurd proposition, let us not forget that Philippine politics is unpredictable, voters have short memories, and citizens gravitate towards imaginary heroes.

 

Many in social media have broken in hysterical and derisive laughter when Bong declared that he will run for the presidency in 2016 from the comfort of his jail cell.

 

Indeed, it is laughable to those who would like to assume that politics in our country operates on some sense of reason, or logic.

 

The fact is we are not actually sure if it does.  

 

Of course, we have not yet seen instances of holy cows and talking birds being turned into campaigners, as what some innovative politicians did in India some years back, where their posters are attached to the bodies of the holy beasts roaming the streets, or where they trained mynah birds to parrot their campaign slogans.

 

But our politics operates not on the logical certainty of a profession whose standards are dictated by ideal templates, but as an unpredictable, colorful show where stars shine so bright for those who can easily perform.

 

In our political firmament, political performance is not about passing laws or serving the public interest. It is about performance in the context of a spectacle, where politicians await their appearance on TV, some even have faces already wearing make-up in anticipation of the camera, and some are even too savvy enough to instruct media people on which side is their better shot.  

 

In this celebrity-driven notion of political performance, political parties are no longer seen in the textbook sense. They are, in fact, parties in the league of TGIF or Happy Thursdays, where camaraderie and booze take precedence over substance, and where ideological discussions are not as fashionable as wearing the best terno, suit or barong during the SONA. It is a world where voting records are not seriously taken into consideration at the voting booth, and where images are more important than campaign issues.

 

This is now the world of simulacra, where the difference between image and reality is no longer easy to discern, and where the boundary between the two practically dissolves in a confusing but entertaining array of representations.

 

It is in this world of simulations where Bong Revilla is at home. After all, he is an actor.

 

The last time we saw him was in an epic soap opera, where he was the Indio hero on which the future of a nation was entrusted to keep. He used the magical powers of our indigenous mythological figures as his allies to defeat the evil forces of the elite colonizers. Before that, he was the Panday battling the dark forces of power and privilege, even as his face became a weekly guest in our living rooms on weekends to deliver amazing, sometimes, magical stories.

 

One can just see how he, or his handlers, orchestrated his recent performance. He delivered a privilege speech that appealed to his mass base, which as much as we want to dismiss, remains sizable. He ended it with his version of an MTV.  

 

Then, instead of allowing himself to be arrested, he surrendered but only after wearing a shirt emblazoned with some biblically-inspired texts, perhaps to project an image that he is not an unlawful renegade, that he is respectful of the law, and that he is above all, and as evidenced by his opposition to the RH Law, a Christian. The image of being in handcuffs would have been also a better visual narrative, but it would have simply been inconsistent with what he wants to project—as a cooperative victim of a system that singled him out.

 

And this is exactly what he, and his handlers, will continuously hammer. He is being singled out.

 

All he has to do is to paint the selectiveness of justice and juxtapose this with the fact that many others were also implicated in the PDAF scandal, some of whom are even close Presidential allies. 

 

All he has to highlight is a selective cover-up, and that even the President is not totally above board on the PDAF and Malampaya anomalies.

 

All he has to cultivate is the prevailing mood of skepticism among the public and the pervasive view that this is indeed selective justice. He can then match this with an orchestrated media blitz to whip us his mass base and paint himself as a victim. 

 

All he has to do is to represent to his public his role of Indio who is under attack by the elites, and as Panday suffering from evil forces conspiring against him.

 

All he has to highlight is the elite and high middle class origins of those who take pleasure in his incarceration and his suffering. 

 

And he can now comfortably dream of the possibility of a presidency in 2016.

 

After all, there are just too many stories of redemption that can be told in our political history. In 1986, we thought the Marcoses were finished. Well, three of them have now come back in politics. 

 

This is now the era of deconstruction, where narratives are being radically altered, and where popular media is a powerful vehicle to invert and destabilize what used to be pervasively taken as truth.

 

Angelina Jollie’s Maleficent, for example, has practically delivered a lethal blow at the fairy tale’s conventional depiction of who is evil, and of the nature of evil. Maleficent was redeemed as not the pure evil that the dominant reading of the fairy tale has traditionally shown. It was she who planted the kiss on the sleeping Aurora to embody the truest love of all, the love of a mother to a child. Thus, it was not only her image as an evil witch that was rehabilitated. The most radical discourse in the movie is when she was represented as a woman capable of giving motherly love.

 

There is now a plethora of re-presenting narratives differently. We now live in a world where the opposition between good and evil is no longer convenient, and where two-dimensional characterization of who is corrupt and who is not may no longer necessarily hold. There is now a demand for back-stories to contextualize acts that are problematic. Even evil people are given spaces to be understood.

 

What should cause us plenty of sleepless nights is the fact that the discourse of “matuwid na daan” is not totally embraced by a cynical public.

 

This may be the discursive opportunity that Bong Revilla can hope for to be true when he files that certificate of candidacy in 2016. He will certainly wish that the public, particularly those who voted for him when he topped the senatorial election in 2000, would be ready to buy his own reconstructive narrative, and that his allies in the entertainment industry will provide the constellation of stars that would lend this grand fairy tale a stage for it to be told.

 

And he would definitely welcome the extra push provided by a crowded presidential race to improve his winning chances.

 

Elections are still a good two years from now. But this early, it appears that he and his handlers, scriptwriters, directors and performers are now setting the stage for him to carve a nice script to rival his fictional Indio and Panday. He may well be able to host one big amazing story. He has nothing to lose.

 

This may appear as a hallucination of a desperate future convict. But the fault of Bong Revilla in dreaming of becoming President is not totally his. The fault is also in our political world that has become a domain of stars, where the difference between a politician and an actor/performer is now difficult to tell, and where many actors become politicians even as many politicians behave like actors. This is a world where the voting public has now become simply an audience.

The author is a former dean of De La Salle University. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of this website.