{"id":5476,"date":"2014-03-29T09:21:46","date_gmt":"2014-03-29T16:21:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=5476"},"modified":"2014-03-29T11:33:32","modified_gmt":"2014-03-29T18:33:32","slug":"bong-revilla-and-family-cleared-for-departure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/03\/29\/bong-revilla-and-family-cleared-for-departure\/","title":{"rendered":"Bong Revilla and family cleared for departure; flies to Israel for ‘divine intercession’"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"Revilla<\/a>
Revilla Family in 2011. Photo courtesy of AllVoices.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

UPDATE: 2:25 AM (MLA Time)<\/strong> – Sen. Ramon ‘Bong’ Revilla Jr., wife Cavite Representative Lani Mercado, and some members of his family were cleared for departure to Israel at midnight (March 29, MLA time).<\/p>\n

In a tweet from the Philippine Daily Inquirer<\/a> (@Team_Inquirer), journalist Mike Ubac (@umichael<\/a>) said that the Revilla family was cleared to fly to Israel at midnight, March 29th.<\/p>\n

Messages circulated the media from an unknown number that Revilla is fleeing the country. Saying that the senator took Philippine Airlines flight PR 312 at 9:25 p.m. The rumors, however, were denied by his media relations officer Amy Mazon.<\/p>\n

“[Revilla left]\u00a0to seek divine intercession on his present predicament,” Mazon told Interaksyon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bureau of Immigration Commissioner Siegfred Mison shared that the senator and his wife asked for permission to travel from\u00a0Senate President Franklin Drilon and Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr.<\/p>\n

Mison then sent a text message to\u00a0Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr., who forwarded the said SMS to reporters before midnight Friday.<\/p>\n

Mison’s SMS reads: “Sir, Sen. Revilla and wife Cong. Lani were cleared for departure a few\u00a0mins ago, EK335 for Dubai. Both legislators had travel authority from Senate President and House Speaker. FYI, sir.”<\/p>\n

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, known for preventing former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from leaving the country in the height of her electoral sabotage issue, reportedly gave Revilla a verbal permission to travel. Reports say that Revilla and family will be back by April 13th, in time for his wife’s birthday.<\/p>\n

Sen. Bong Revilla was brought to the limelight after being dragged into the pork barrel scam where over P10 billion of Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) were funneled to bogus non-government organizations allegedly set up by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles.<\/p>\n

Napoles is currently detained at Fort Sto. Domingo in Sta. Rosa, Laguna for illegal detention of whistle-blower Benhur Luy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    UPDATE: 2:25 AM (MLA Time) – Sen. Ramon ‘Bong’ Revilla Jr., wife Cavite Representative Lani Mercado, and some …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":5478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,1145,95],"tags":[1492,1493,1158,1157,708],"class_list":["post-5476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-headline","category-news-ph","tag-bong-revilla","tag-dubai","tag-pdaf","tag-pork-barrel","tag-scam","mauthors-ching-dee","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}