At this point in his life, Mike Defensor doesn’t have to do anything. He has been a city councilor, a member of the House of Representatives and a Cabinet secretary. And at 57, he has a profitable mining company and leases out prime commercial spaces. The children are all grown up and are all professionals. It’s actually a good life for semi-retirement.

So why the heck is he sticking his neck out for a bunch of former Marines who claimed to have delivered hundreds of suitcases of cash to people in the highest echelons of government, the President of the Republic included?

Some say he wants to run again for public office. If he does, doing what he’s doing now is a really bad idea. Massive publicity he is getting, of course, but there are other ways to generate that.

Mike is no babe in the woods; he has had his share of public relations campaigns that have propelled him into the limelight. And he is not a political noob not to know that. Considering how demonstrably vindictive the present administration is, he is going to get hit, and hard!

Thus, aside from the run-of-the-mill libel/cyberlibel and sedition charges which all of us in the opposition are facing, Mike is also looking at two offenses wherein bail is a matter of discretion: plunder and qualified human trafficking. He is now the poster boy for the Marcos government’s “bend the law” policy.

Yet Mike Defensor bravely marches on with his colleagues — this crazy writer included — with cannons to the left and right of us, storm’d at with shot and shell, into the jaws of Death, into the mouth of hell (to paraphrase Alfred, Lord Tennyson).

He is a constant fixture in numerous rallies calling for accountability and calling out the present dispensation for great graft.

More famously, his name is now practically attached to the ex-Marines claiming to be the courier of corruption cash. For this, aside from the aforementioned legal problems, he has been harassed to no end by the National Bureau of Investigation and the puppet Ombudsman.

So why does he do it? Cliched though it may be, he says it’s for Country and People.

A standard response for a politician, but considering the circumstances above, I can believe him. And in the face of the greatest thievery in Philippine political history, no Filipino can call himself patriotic if he doesn’t do something in protest, though it may be as trifling as posting on social media.

But the biggest conundrum regarding Mike is how calm and composed he appears to be in the face of such tribulations. I do not know if I can be so equanimous in the same situation, especially if — as in Mike’s case — the government’s legal assassins are targeting not only him but his wife and children as well. I might just turn into a suicide bomber!

Mike is now facing the toughest test of his life, but if his past accomplishments are any indication, he will pass this one with flying colors.