Word war rages: Bong seeks Mar’s resignation

MANILA, Philippines - The word war between Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr. and Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II deteriorated further yesterday as the senator called for the resignation of the Cabinet official.

Revilla slammed Roxas for his apparent failure to address the increasing crime rate in the country. As secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Roxas supervises the Philippine National Police.

The senator also accused Roxas of performing dismally as DILG secretary and in his former portfolio at the Department of Transportation and Communications.

In an interview, Revilla said he is hurt both by Roxas’ betrayal as a friend and the wrong accusations thrown by the administration against him over the pork barrel scam.

“We were seatmates at the Senate… He started it first in Cavite then now this (pork barrel issue) when they learned about the 2016 elections,” he said in Filipino.

Revilla and Roxas are both prospective presidential candidates in 2016.

The senator said he received information that Roxas was behind the decision of former Technology Resource Center director general Dennis Cunanan to turn state witness in the pork barrel scam.

Revilla, together with Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Jinggoy Estrada, several congressmen and other government officials, were charged with plunder before the Office of the Ombudsman for alleged misuse of the lawmakers’ pork barrel or Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) released to bogus non-government organizations (NGOs). 

Revilla and Roxas swapped bitter words after the senator insinuated last week that Malacañang and Roxas could be behind Cunanan’s decision to come out and pin him down along with Estrada in the pork barrel scam.

“I don’t need his pity. If at all, I pity him,” Revilla said, responding to Roxas’ statements last week that he pitied his former friend for the controversy he is now embroiled in.

Stop fabricating lies

Revilla called on the administration to stop fabricating false accusations against him, Enrile and Estrada.

“Let us stick to the truth. Stop fabricating lies. When Ruby Tuason (former social secretary of ex-President Joseph Estrada) testified against the others, they looked for a witness to testify against me in the person of Cunanan,” he said.

When Cunanan was invited to the Senate hearing for the first time, Revilla noted that he had not implicated him.

“What is this? This is the script of Secretary Mar, right? That’s lamentable,” he said.

Revilla downplayed Cunanan’s claims, saying all these accusations are part of the administration’s script to destroy any political plans that he might have for the 2016 elections.

He referred to Roxas as “Boy Pick-up” in his privilege speech delivered at the Senate last month where he revealed how Roxas picked him up and brought him to a breakfast meeting with President Aquino at his official residence in Malacañang at the height of the impeachment trial against former chief justice Renato Corona in 2012.

Reacting to Cunanan’s resurfacing last week, Revilla said “Boy Pick-up” might have picked up Cunanan to testify against him.

In his affidavit, Cunanan revealed that he talked to Revilla and Estrada on the phone separately to verify their signatures in documents that endorsed NGOs linked with alleged pork barrel scam operator Janet Lim-Napoles.

Revilla also accused the secretary of diverting public attention from the backlash of Roxas’ apparent disappointing performance at the wake of Super Typhoon Yolanda last year.

“He’s doing just fine, by his own actions, in destroying himself,” Revilla added.

According to Revilla, Roxas has proven how he has come “to be ineffective in crisis management and disaster response in Yolanda.”

He also assailed Roxas’ apparent inefficiency as former DOTC secretary when the problems on vehicle registration, lack of registration stickers and proliferation of “colorum” (out of line) vehicles cropped up during his term.

Revilla also said “the increase in deaths by public transport, the poor state of our airports and seaports, the controversies and irregularities in the LRT and MRT, and the poor state of the country’s transportation and communications, are all results of his ineptitude while in the DOTC.”