Sen. Bong Revilla’s tell-all pork scam privilege speech: thick on emotional appeal, thin on logical argument

So Philippine Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr today has concluded his privilege speech before the Senate where he supposedly aired his side following his being implicated in allegations of pork barrel thievery surrounding alleged scam leader Janet Lim Napoles. Did we learn anything new from the speech? It seems none — other than that Revilla thinks whistleblowers Benhur Luy et al are liars and that Philippine President Benigno Simeon “BS” Aquino III and his daang matuwid rhetoric are all big fakes. The Senator also accused Luy of forging his signature dubbing him “Boy Pirma” (literally “Signature Kid”).

Words mightier than the sword: Senator Bong Revilla

Words mightier than the sword: Senator Bong Revilla

Beyond that, Revilla’s privilege speech was no more than a tirade heavy on appeals to emotion, citing how hard he works in his various sidelines as movie and television star, product endorser, and family man (which raises questions around how focused he really is on being a Philippine Senator). He also recounted the last three years of President BS Aquino’s administration lambasting the president and his sidekick Secretary Mar Roxas for the various shady activities they instigated to influence the impeachment trial of former Chief Justice Renato Corona in 2012.

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Revilla cited a specific occasion when he was chauffeured by no less than Secretary Roxas to a meeting with President BS Aquino for the purpose of hearing Aquino try to convince him to deliver his preferred verdict. As expected, Revilla made it clear in his speech that he responded to the president by asserting his and the Senate’s independence in whatever decision it will take. But of course.

Much of the rest of Revilla’s speech was a litany of well-known, widely-recognised failures of the Aquino government — most notably the fatal political paralysis that doomed the relief and recovery efforts following the devastation wrought by Typhoon Haiyan (a.k.a. Yolanda) marked by the insensitive treatment of the calamity victims by the president and Secretary Roxas.

Listeners who may have fallen for Senator Revilla’s charms and the tears he shed while on the podium would’ve been victims of an old persuasion technique where the persuader befuddles the audience with a cacophony of irrelevant non-sequiturs (with thanks to my colleague Paul Farol for that piece of insight). The tactic also involved a rather lame attempt to discredit or flat out deny the pork barrel scam itself by trying to convince everyone that the scam itself was part of a conspiracy being instigated by the government to cover up its failures.

Perhaps, all true. But just the same, Senator Revilla, the allegations have been tabled and it will only be in a court (or pseudo-court as might be the case) where the accused will be forced to stick to the issue when making their testimony.

For now, a Senator’s “privilege speech” allows him to say what he wants — which in this case, consisted of a wholesale glossing over the facts, the allegations, and the arguments in favour of distracting drama and hollow bluster.

As always, when it comes to circuses like these, we can only look to the national wisdom in the words popularised by the nation’s premier media network:

Abangan ang susunod na kabanata.

21 Replies to “Sen. Bong Revilla’s tell-all pork scam privilege speech: thick on emotional appeal, thin on logical argument”

  1. Hah! National wisdom? Revilla has nil same with the people who voted for him, knowing what his mental capacity is (sorry to the guys who voted for him, but I cannot really think of any reason why a voter would even consider him to become a senator)

  2. talking about evidence, an evidence is an evidence whether its a truck load or just written on a single sheet of paper. this is just an evidence that even a stupid person can be a senator.

  3. Leon ng Maynila, Peping Agimat at ang Tonka toy truck…for what had been taunted as pasabog ni Sen. Bong Revilla on his privilege speech sa senate na pinagpuyatan ko pa is nothing more than another zarzuela ng Imus Production, complete with props, barangay revilla and a crying tatay, former senator himself Peping Agimat Ramon Revilla Sr. i was expecting some thunder pero utot lang pala. maraming props pero tulad ng karamihang pinoy film, walang substance at walang nasagot na detalye maliban sa akusasyon niyang pineke ang signature niya. di tulad ng kay Sen.Pogi na may allegation na sinuhulan sila ng Malacanan ng 50m as additional DAP allocation ng ma convict si CJ Corona, ang tanging pasabog este utot ni Leon ay ang pagsundo sa kanya ng driver na si Mar Roxas patungo sa meeting nila ni Penoy at Butch Abad sa isang almusal ng kesong puti, pandesal, itlog, sinngag at hamon. di rin niya nabanggit kung ito’y Adelinas o Excellente. sinabi rin niyang “sabi daw ni Penoy” (kung sabi-sabi, ito’y tsismis) ay balato na lang sa kanya ito. ano kaya’ng ibabalato ni Leon? ang alin? ang natitirang hamon, kesong puti o napipinting laban sa sabungan? sabi din daw ni Butch..”let’s work together”. anong masama sa context ng sinabi ni Abad? ayon kay Leon, ito’y patungkol daw sa pag convict kay CJ na kung saan hinihikayat siyang bumuto at mag convict. pero wala sa mga statements na binanggit niya na sinabi DAW ulit ni Penoy at Butch. isa lang talaga ang napatunayan sa speech na ito ni Sen. Revilla Jr….ang katotohanan na kaya pala ng Tonka toy truck na kargahan ito ng volumes and volumes of documents as evidenced on the table on the senate floor. huwag namang magagalit ang mga caviteno, tulad ng presidency ni Aguinaldo, may bahid ito ng katrayduran ng ilang pilipino.

      1. He has catered to his constituents most of his life. By constituents I mean the type that go to his movies. Why stop now? Dance with the girl that brung ya. When people fall for this I can’t really be proud to be pinoy.

    1. hahaha. caviteno ako pero hinde ako tanga at mdali maniwala sa cnsabi ni pogi BASANG BASA na papel niyan sa CAVITENO ewan ko lang sa mga KABISYAAN at MUSLIM dito sa lugar namin. Kung ano yun popogi noya ganun lng ngwa niya dito sa cavite. mga low cost n waiting shed. yun lng at WALA ng IBA. mga swapang at ganid kasi ang mag anak niyan kya ganyan. hehehe. kksuka ka tlga bilang caviteno sama muna tatay mung papunta n sa hukay

  4. The ship of state is taking on water. It makes you wonder when the political rats will finally abandon the ship to save themselves. The unreality of the daan na matuwid is a total sham. It was a well crafted propaganda slogan designed to deceive the Sovereign Filipino People. We are going nowhere as the present administration begins to disintegrate. Massive corruption, rising unemployment, increasing poverty and criminality are just the tip of the iceberg which is not being addressed by the present national leader. Something has got to give. Makes you wonder who is really in charge.

    1. Not even the malacanang trolls that they hire to spread propaganda can save their master now that the cats out of the bag.

      1. Huwag masydo magpapaniwala sa revilla cancer yan sa senado. Matagal na. Kung alam mu lng gaano kabaho na yna daih p niyan inaanay. ikaw magresearch po tayo bago humusga

        1. Nah, the president is still in deep shit thanks to revilla’s AND estrada’s revelations.
          Only a fool would still believe in Aquino.

  5. Revilla is an actor… His ghost writers may have been thinking. That all Filipinos are NAIVE, like his “bakya” crowd audience.

    Well, Mr. Revilla, some are smarter than you and your ghost writers. As you can read the various comments and writings on this GRP Website.

    Mr. Revilla, you VOTED FOR the Impeachment of Supreme Court CJ Corona. Why are you just shouting now of the impropriety , of Aquino and Roxas? You enjoyed also the blessings of the Pork Barrel…It may be because Aquino and his minions, have grabbed your tail?

    So, much for this nonsense. Why did people vote for this MORON, anyway…

    1. Looks like he’s regretting on being bribed by the bald one and his BFF.
      The fall of the Aquino Government is now unavoidable thanks to this latest revelation.

  6. Perhaps Bong Revilla was emboldened by the insinuation of his father, former Senator Ramon Revilla.

    What then can be expected? It’s like the blind leading the blind.

    What did his father contribute to the country when he was senator, to begin with?

    Perhaps he enlightened his sons how he fathered 72 children to 16 different women (see http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/11/02/11/ramon-revilla-sr-has-72-kids-says-spokesperson)?

    Or perhaps he boasted on how he accumulated much more financial wealth being a senator than being an actor?

    Perhaps this is pathetic to most normal human beings, but looking at how boastful Bong and his siblings are, to them this might be the crowning glory of their family heritage which the original wife of Ramon Revilla, Sr. was maybe so proud as well.

    Surely this is something that most parasitic Filipinos look up to as well that they can be too proud of.

  7. dami kasing pinapalamon ang mga revilla. at lahat ng mga yan Buhay hari kung sa yaman lng nila nkuha sa artista hindep oyun sasapat. kaunting math lng at analysis.

  8. Pnoy aquino and bong revilla

    2 wrongs…
    2 liars
    2 cockroaches
    2 incompetent self-serving non-achievers

    And they represent the curent president and an aspiring president.

    Last one to leave switch the lights out. Oh, meralco has already done that

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