Monday, November 07, 2011

72 Children, Politics and Murder

Several politicians in the country are known to have many children from many women. When I was still working at the House of Representatives, I befriended one staff of former Congwoman Roa of Cagayan de Oro, Misamis Oriental. Anyway, the staff told us in one friendly chat how the husband, then Governor, Congressman, Mayor, Pedro "Oloy" Roa, has fathered some 85 live children from possibly 20+ different women. And that was only those that they can account. It was possible, the staff said, that there could be other children not accounted for.

He narrated that in fairness to the past Congressman, he gave at least a house and lot to each woman with a child/children by him, assured their monthly allowance at least while he was still alive. Since he fathered so many children from many women, he naturally have many "extended" relatives, the families and kins of those women.

When Cong. Oloy Roa died, according to him, the funeral procession was sooo long that while the coffin has already reached the cemetery, the tail of the procession has just left the Church. Proving that the past Congressman has been a kind man to so many people in his district and province. So when the wife, the past Congw. Roa ran to fill the vacancy, it was a relatively easy victory.

I have no way of verifying this story as I only got it from one source, the staff of the Congw. who has also worked with the original Cong. Oloy Roa. The Congressman's main business at that time was logging. That was in the 60s to 80s.

Can you believe that, 80+ children from one man.

Anyway, here in Luzon, another politician, past Senator Ramon Revilla Jr., is known to have 72 children from 16 different women. Wow. Only a politician can achieve that.

The story of the former Senator's life is reignited because of the recent murder of one of his 72 children, Ramgen Revilla. Ramgen is said to be the former Senator's favorite son, much closer to him compared to the current Senator Ramon Revilla Jr.

A good Filipino journalist, Raissa Robles, wrote an intriguing but well-researched paper,

Sen. Ramon Revilla’s “Other Woman” 

yesterday. She researched the life of the mother of the murdered son, Ms. Genelyn Magsaysay, via facebook. See, facebook is a good source for investigative reporting, even for researching motives of murder. Raissa posted these pics from Genelyn's facebook profile. The former Senator and his 9 children from one woman.


 hi.Revilla - photo Happy family
On Nov. 6, 2011, Genelyn changed her profile photo on FB to this, showing her nine children cuddling up to their father, Sen. Ramon Revilla Sr.

Revilla - Genelyn - PIC family shared sept 24-10 teenagers na
Genelyn shared this family photo on Sept. 24,2010 on Facebook

Revilla - Genelyn - Sept 24-11 childfren and ramon
Genelyn posted this on Facebook on Sept. 24, 2011

From Raissa's story, Genelyn has been complaining recently of the lack of family support given to her and her 9 children from the original Revilla family. The twist now is that the currently arrested suspect, Ramgen's brother RJ, could be the fall guy. 
It is also suspicious why current Senator Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr., topnothcer in the recent Senatorial elections and is known to be eyeing the Presidency or Vice Presidency by 2016, has been dragged into the controversy and he himself called for an "urgent" press conference last Saturday, a weekend. Raissa said that most press conferences are done on weekdays, not weekends, unless it is something really urgent for the person who called up the media briefing.
Then Raissa noted that Genelyn and Sen. Bong are not friends on facebook. And about a week before the murder, Genelyn posted in her fb wall, "the allowance that you are giving is not enough for monthly consumption... election is coming again, then you will publicize how you love all your siblings, God knows what to do, you want to be the President of the Philippines..."
Clearly a dig at Sen. Bong.
Oh well, I normally don't post about personalities. It's just that this murder involving siblings from a political family is among the favorite media topics these days. 
Meanwhile, who are the other Filipino personalities, in politics or business, who have at least two dozen children? Former Cong. Oloy Roa has seven dozens or more; former Sen. Ramon Revilla Sr. has six dozens. Wow. They helped expanded the Philippines' population a lot, siring 2-3 children a year from different women. The pro-RH bill guys could be smirking at the reproductive capacity of these two politicians. 

2 comments:

Lardy said...

Pareng Noy,

Do big families then breed big government?

:-)

Lardy

Bienvenido Oplas Jr said...

Pareng Lardy,

It's more of the reverse. BIG government allows or breeds big families :-)

On a serious note, it should be impossible to feed and care for 72 children (or more) + 16 women from the salaries of a movie actor alone, or from business income. Only income from big politics and big government, legal and non-legal, can produce a big amount of money to do such feat.