“Storm in a teacup” #SaraDrama

Nov 23.  “Don’t worry about my safety. I have talked to a person and I said, if I get killed, go kill BBM [Marcos], [First Lady] Liza Araneta, and [Speaker] Martin Romualdez. No joke. No joke.”

Nov 25.  “Di ba pumalag nga ang buong bayan nang pinatay ng pamilya nila si Benigno Aquino Jr. (Didn’t the people fight back when they plotted the assassination of Benigno Aquino Jr.)?”

Nov 26.  “Ang hindi lang nagawa ni Ninoy … kaya hindi siya nakaganti … kasi hindi siya nagbilin. … But you know Benigno Aquino Jr. is not Sara Duterte. Ibang tao siya. Ibang tao din ako.”

All that from VP Sara in the run-up to November 27, when Ninoy would have turned 92, were he not assassinated by the Marcos military in broad daylight @ 50, just when he was finally of age to run for president under the Marcos constitution.

Few doubted that the dictator Marcos was the mastermind, simply because, like Cory said, once martial law was declared, nothing ever happened to Ninoy without the dictator’s approval, nothing! No one, Ver least of all, would have dared touch Ninoy without clearance from on high. It was also said that the dictator needn’t have given the order directly, that is, not in so many words, but merely indicated his wishes in other ways, perhaps a la Henry II in TS Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral: as in, who will rid me of this troublesome one… or some such similar expression of grim exasperation.

The Marcos camp has always denied that Marcos was the mastermind, but anyone who bothers to check out credible documented reports and court rulings and docus knows that the Marcoses and their allies are lying or simply don’t know the truth just because, let us remember, the OG Marcos was wily that way.  And now that the son has made it back to the Palace, thanks to the Dutertes, the one time napag-usapan ang Ninoy assassination was in the time of Imee‘s movie Martyr or Murderer (2023) where a lot of screen time was still spent “trying to establish Ferdinand, Sr.’s innocence with regard to the Aquino assassination.”

BUTCH FRANCISCO: Was that still necessary? Through the years, the nation seems to have been convinced that Ferdinand, Sr. had nothing to do with Ninoy’s death. A comedic scene in Martyr that shows chief household staff Elizabeth Oropesa playing detective summarizes what had become the scenario in the public mind – yes, the one that involves a blood relation as the mastermind behind Ninoy’s killing. https://www.pikapika.ph/

Yes, it was still necessary, it will always be necessary. ‘Ika nga ni Imelda, perception is real, truth is not — but only in her world. Perception of innocence that is based on lies has to be periodically reinforced, otherwise the believers are confronted with nothing but the truth.

The truth that VP Sara dared speak, salamat na rin, and thankfully not to paint herself as a Ninoy, because she’s nothing like Ninoy. Her claim of death threats I can believe, but her conditional death can’t be automatically attributed to the Marcoses without investigation and confirmation.

PBBM, to his credit, has been very measured in his responses, even if he seems to have flipflopped from palaban to pa-statesman.

PRESIDENTIAL COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE Nov 25 

The President said Duterte should be made accountable for her statements. Any assassination attempt against the President also raises concerns about the security of the nation and its citizens, he said.

Such criminal attempts should never be overlooked, the President added.

“Kung ganun na lang kadali ang pagplano sa pagpatay ng isang Presidente, papaano pa kaya ang mga karaniwan na mamayan? ‘Yang ganyang criminal na pagtatangka ay hindi dapat pinapalampas,” he said.

Interestingly echoing the people’s sentiments in 1983: “If he can do it to Ninoy, he can do it to any of us.”

Three days later,  Nov 28, as the Left and pinklawan social media pundits urged, nay, demanded, that Congress impeach the VP, now na! this purported message from “BBM” to Congress was leaked to media.

In the larger scheme of things, Sara is unimportant. So please do not file impeachment complaints. It will only distract us from the real work of governance which is to improve the lot of all Filipinos.

Today, the 29th, PBBM acknowledged sending the message and reiterated:

What will happen if someone files an impeachment? It will tie down the House [of Representatives], it will tie down the Senate, it will just take up time and for what? For nothing,” he added.

“None of this will help improve a single Filipino life,” he stressed. “As far as I’m concerned, it is a storm in a teacup.” https://philstarlife.com

Ang tanong, magpapapigil ba ang Konggreso? And will there be similar messages to the DOJ and the NBI to let the VP be? As in, dedma na lang? And let the people power attempt die a natural death?

The Left would be so disappointed, and maybe the DDS peeps daily gathering in EDSA, too, who seem to think that impeachment is what will bring huge crowds of Duterte supporters to the streets. But but but what fueled the huge rallies of 1986 was Cory’s nonviolent civil disobedience campaign and the wildly successful boycott of crony businesses that primed the people to stand as barricades and shield the military rebels from Marcos’s wrath. Parang this one is, has, nothing like that.

And then again, who knows. Here’s hoping BBM’s right and the “storm in a teacup” subsides quickly enough. If so, here’s to a viable tandem who can beat Sara and/or  Raffy Tulfo in 2028.

The Zuleika episode #QuadComm

It all escalated pretty fast. Wednesday the QuadComm cited VP Sara’s chief of staff Zuleika Lopez in contempt and ordered her detained in the Batasan until the next hearing day, Monday. Thursday night the VP not only visited but made arrangements to camp out at Cong Pulong’s office, in solidarity with beleaguered staff, as promised, if any be treated with, I mean cited in, contempt. Friday was all about Batasan security trying to convince the VP to leave Pulong’s office and just come back for regular visits, and the VP refusing and challenging the security officer to try and make her leave. Friday night, the House Committee on good governance and public accountability met via zoom and decided to order the transfer of Zuleika to the Women’s Correctional Facility, which apparently drove Zuleika into a panic attack severe enough to see her ferried from hospital to hospital, Veteran’s to St. Luke’s to Veteran’s, over the next 12 hours, punctuated by the VP’s running rants about corrupt and inefficient government officials, especially congressmen, the speaker, and the president, with threats of assassination thrown in, that’s being taken very seriously indeed.

Sounds like another ground for impeachment. Makes me wonder. Did Sara unwittingly walk into that trap? Did the QuadComm anticipate that holding Atty Lopez in contempt would bring Sara running, and ranting, to a point of no return? Or was it the QuadComm that walked into a trap, failing to anticipate that the VP would go for broke, level up her attacks on the BBM admin for scheming to impeach her and make charter change happen, grab at the chance to remind the public of the Speaker’s presidential ambition and the First Couple’s complicity and other alleged crimes, perhaps to push them into initiate impeachment proceedings before they have the numbers in the Senate?

LOL, I’m reaching, I know. But it’s that kind of situation where we know that a lot is going on behind the scenes that we’re not privy to and anything is possible. Certainly that order to transfer Zuleika to a correctional was meant to agitate–was it cleared with the Speaker and BBM? Puwede namang sa Veterans na agad, given her chronic back pain made worse by that day-long grilling by the QuadComm. It would have been a show of kindness, not of weakness. Unless the point was to break Zuleika (a la Garma?) nga ba?

Whatever. Tomorrow’s (final?) hearing promises to be a blast, whichever way it goes. Testy times.

Teatro Digong

Obvious naman kung bakit umapir si Digong sa QuadComm hearing. Gusto niya maalaman, firsthand, what they have on him, and, also, to generate fresh social media content that would bolster his Quad-damaged image.

DDS vloggers now have a lot of new stuff to cut up for a series of quick videoclips | soundbites that depict the Digong in all his defiant glory, daring Congress and the DOJ to charge him in court for the EJKs during his admin’s drug war. He seems confident, even as he takes responsibility for the kill-pagnanlaban-policy, that no court would convict him for police criminality, correct me if I’m wrong.

He reminds that he’s a lawyer, a former fiscal and prosecutor, a police academy teacher even, and he knows the law and how it works.  Let’s not forget, too, that the Supreme Court’s chief justice and 12 (of 14) associate justices are Digong appointees. Surely that counts for something. https://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/incumbent-justices/

All in all, it was a fascinating 14-hour show of machismo on both sides of the divide, entertaining even, with Digong giving as good as he got, contodo surprise appearance by VP Sara to check on him, kumain na ba, or something like that? — best supporting actress to his best actor.

I actually sat through most of it. I could never sit through his monologues of yore, nakakapagod just trying to get the rhythm of his multi-lingual-speak and only to be shocked dismayed depressed. The question-answer format was quite restful all around, lol, long-winded interpellations and manifestations also gave him, us, long-enough breaks to recharge.  After a while I was finding it hilarious the way he would give different, contradictory, answers to the same question. Asked about the ICC, he went from Sipain-ko-sila to I-would-welcome-them to Ayoko-sa-puti. Na puro kapani-paniwala, coming from him. And all quite spontaneous. Alin doon ang “istorya lang”? It’s like, live audiences turn him on, and as with good stand-up comedians, we can expect the unexpected.

Meanwhile, the Quad apparently is still a long way from achieving its ambitious goal of tying up EJKs with POGOs with Chinese syndicates with the illegal drug trade. Digong’s near-violent reaction to Sonny Trillanes’s charge of ill-gotten wealth — some P2.4 billion in deposits to Digong’s bank accounts from 2007 to 2015 allegedly from drug money — tells us that he’s not about to waive his right to keep secret the bank accounts he jointly holds with Honeylet and Sara.  He has even threatened to sue Trillanes for libel and accuses him of being a BBM minion.

And speaking of BBM, I just heard a couple of macho liberal kinda-konyo pinklawan vloggers freaking out that Martin Romualdez is still the Marcos camp’s preferred bet in 2028 in anticipation of a  Sandro run and win in 2034. These social media pundits think there’s no way Martin can beat Sara BUT they actually believe that Leni Robredo can !?!

What is this romance with Leni? Totoo bang may panalo? Hmm, only if, in a two-way race, with the full support of the Marcos-Romualdez camp. Fat chance that. In a three way race, Leni doesn’t have a chance just because hindi siya kilala ng masa. Wala siyang public presence, except to her naive middleclass loyalists. And she has yet to level up from motherhood statements, much like the macho liberal senatoriables, when they could be talking fundamental change, if only for starters.

To wrap up, it bears noting that I’m seeing replays of the Digong sa QuadComm on two TV channels. Frankly, I’m not sure which camp this helps more. But Congress seems to think it’s a good idea.

Dogging Digong

Trump’s wild comeback does not remind so much of the Marcos comeback in 2022 (via the son) as it does WARN of a Duterte comeback in 2028 (via the daughter). What else could the synchronicity of QuadComm hearings and Trump’s victory mean, or portend, if not some corresponding, or similar, outcome for the Duterte dynasty, that is, if they try hard enough (as Trump and the Republicans did). No wonder the DDS camp is overjoyed, may pag-asa talagang makabalik.

But not, it would seem, if the QuadComm can help it. Why else would they be dogging him, as in, hounding him by investigating the extrajudicial killings that the Duterte admin’s drug war wrought, updating nation on the latest facts and figures, and giving voice to the victims and families of victims, not least among them Leila de Lima, if not to remind us of those difficult days when human rights were violently violated left and right and yet martial-law vibes became acceptable daw because, wow, no more drugs, no more crazed addicts preying on women in dark streets, peace and quiet at last, even if of the dark kind.

It’s like the Quad is leaving no stone unturned to uncover as much credible information as possible, hopefully enough to compel the DOJ to file formal criminal charges against the former president and his cohorts. Due process and all that. Meanwhile, Quad chips away at the Duterte brand, rendering it exposed, if not diminished. I suppose the idea is to make it difficult, if not impossible, for DDS candidates to win in 2025’s midterms.

What about VP Sara and her super-confidential confidential funds ? I-i-impeach nga ba ng Konggreso? Makisama kaya ang Senado? I’ve been monitoring the discourse among social media macho pundits and because a couple of reps have said that there’s enough evidence to impeach, there’s a sense na the Lower House will, should, begin proceedings soon or else they’ll run out of time, campaign season na by Feb 11, sayang naman ang momentum, or something like that.

Others think it’s not going to happen yet, let her stew, kumbaga. Tila kasi wala palang Plan B ang Marcos camp nang di nakalusot o pumatok ang chacha-to-parliamentary with House-Speaker-as-Prime-Minister scheme.  The Marcoses of course need to be sure that the next president is one of them, if not by blood then by affinity and/or complicity. But Martin simply isn’t simpatiko enough to “win hearts and minds” even of the gullible kind.

A lot will depend on how the midterms turn out. But no-thanks-to-Trump there’s a palpable sense of dread — especially now that we are being reminded of the Digong years — regarding a Sara Duterte win in 2028, and for now we can only hope that the incumbent and his peeps have the smarts to thwart that.