Category: inday sara

“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.

In fairness to VP Sara

The DDS camp is, of course, exhilarated by VP Sara Duterte’s revelations re her history with the Marcos sibs, Imee and BBM — she has given vloggers and pundits heaps of new and hot quotable quotes, social media content, to further fuel anti-BBM sentiments.

The anti-DDS naman, whether pro-Marcos or pinklawan or undecided, are mostly rather aghast, if titillated, at certain choice cuts, particularly the threat addressed to Imee in some group chat that if the political attacks on her (Sara) did not stop, “Huhukayin ko ang tatay ninyo (sa LNMB) at itatapon ko sa West Philippine Sea.”  Empty threat?  Matindi just the same because that LNMB burial remains controversial. And then when she started sniffling, the VP was quick to explain, “Hindi ako umiiyak, hindi ako nagco-cocaine, malamig lang yung aircon.” Smooth potshot that.

Everyone’s waiting for Imee and BBM to respond, in their separate ways. But the sibs are on silent mode. Why dignify any of it, is the Marcos style, and it has served them well, it would seem. Especially since pundits are saying that the VP has become “unhinged” if not “emotionally unstable” and need not be taken seriously.

At this point in time, it’s good to be reminded when exactly relations between the Marcoses and the Dutertes started to deteriorate, leading to this unmistakable declaration of war by the VP.

After some browsing I tracked it back to May 2023 when Sara ally, Rep. Gloria Arroyo, was removed as senior deputy speaker, supposedly because she was planning a coup to replace Martin Romualdez (a replay of June 2018 when Arroyo replaced Pantaleon Alvarez) as Speaker. A few days later, “tambaloslos” became part of the public vocabulary, courtesy of the VP. By the new year the Romualdez House was pushing for Charter Change, purportedly to loosen economic restrictions but suspectedly to shift from bicam to uni-parliamentary, no VP needed, and BBM could rule forever as prime minister. That chacha attempt failed, thanks to the Zubiri Senate. But in recent months, Congress budget hearings have been poking into the Office of the VP’s (or is it the DepEd’s confidential fund) 2022 budget, departing from congressional tradition (maybe about time?) exempting the president’s and the vp’s budget from such scrutiny. The VP insists that the Lower House is just fishing for evidence of impeachable wrongdoing on her part, AND says she has a list of 5 impeachable offenses by BBM.

In effect, matagal nang nagti-tit-for-tat ang dalawang kampo. Sabi nga (daw) ni former Sen. Manny Villar, it’s all about 2028. The UniTeam promise, premise, was that 2028 would be Sara’s turn as president, with BBM’s annointment. Now that the prospect has dimmed considerably, I imagine that the VP isn’t going to let up on the diatribes and that the DDS are back to calling on their peeps to do an EDSA before Congress succeeds in impeaching her.

To my mind, that sit-down with media was a declaration of war, a point of no return. There is no taking back any of her claims, allegations, re the Marcos sibs, the same with the promise of more to come vs the Speaker first cousin and the First Lady.

I don’t think she’s unhinged. Rather, she’s on the warpath. After all the Romualdez Congress is demonizing her like hell.  But I do take issue with her claim that the BBM admin has merely tolerated her, or that she has gained nothing from UniTeam.

For one, as VP she is just a heartbeat away from the presidency. For another,  BBM has kept the ICC out. Maybe in the prez’s balance sheet, that’s the quid pro quo. Quits-quits na sila sa bayani burial ni Marcos Sr.

IMEEproblema, IMEEsolusyon

When PBBM announced that Senator Imee was one of the 12 senatorial candidates of his Alyansa 2025, it wasn’t totally unexpected, kahit pa panay ang patutsada ng senadora sa maraming policies of the kapatid’s admin. Blood is thicker than water, after all?  Except that Imee was a no-show at the convention, and the very next day, death anniv of Ferdinand Sr., she released a video thanking her bro, sabay announce that she chooses to run as an Independent.

35 na taon ng nakalipas ngayong araw mula nung pumanaw ang ama ko, ngunit buhay na buhay ang mga aral nya sa aking puso. Kaya’t bilang panganay niya, pinipili kong manindigan nang malaya’t matatag, tulad niya; na wala na dapat kampihan kundi ang Sambayanang Pilipino.”
https://www.facebook.com/ImeeMarcos/videos/523695270524068 

Umm… Marcos was with the Liberal Party until 1964, with the Nacionalista Party during his presidencies 1965 – ’72, “independent” only during the dictatorship 1972 – ’86. But whatever. I imagine that Imee is playing to Marcos loyalists, even as Duterte’s Diehard Supporters (DDS) are demanding na ilaglag niya unequivocally si BBM. Otherwise daw it’s like she’s just namamangka sa dalawang ilog, which she denied in a press briefing with Senate reporters today. https://www.facebook.com/

I’m not sure  that it’s not just more of the sibs playing good-cop-bad-cop to disarm us, even as their kids quietly follow in their footsteps. Lalo na’t hindi naman daw na-offend si BBM: welcome pa rin daw si Imee in case she wants to join the Alyansa’s sorties. https://www.tiktok.com/@newswatchplusph/video

Likewise this from Philstar‘s Cito Beltran gives Imee the benefit of the doubt.

Blood is thicker but venom is a killer
https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2024/09/30/2388918/blood-thicker-venom-killer

At face value, the inclusion of Senator Imee Marcos in the administration’s list of candidates may have seemed like a conciliatory gesture. It was certainly a surprise to people who have followed the political K-drama in Malacañang, where Senator Imee has been treated more as an outsider than presidential relative for at least a year if not more.

It’s tempting to call her inclusion as political window dressing to show that the Marcos Unity Team stands strong against all foes. To take it a step further, it was obviously an attempt to break the Imee-Sara alliance or friendship forged during Imee’s period of “destierro” and paint Imee as a “compromising politician” if she abandoned Sara Duterte.

But to her credit and lessons learned, Senator Imee stood her ground, politely thanked the administration for the inclusion and in the same breath declared her independence. That was a very polite “Thanks, but no thanks.”

It is often said that when it comes to family, “blood is thicker than water.” But judging from the many hits and hurts that Imee Marcos suffered from relatives and ex-friends, I surmise that Imee’s version is now: “Blood is thicker, but venom is more poisonous.”

With all her political experience and wisdom, Imee knows a possible set-up or booby trap come campaign and election time. If Senator Imee relies on her being a presidential sister and administration candidate, she could be left hanging in terms of funds and political support. Imee knows that more than anything, she is window dressing for the administration for many reasons.

But when the campaign and elections get really tough and close, favor will go to the candidates who bring something to the table apart from family ties and an independent mind. Many of those in the administration’s senatorial line-up represent a political party, a bailiwick, interest groups, funds or star power. With PBBM already President, Imee brings nothing else. The chances of her being dropped or “malaglag” are high and inevitable.

She has no guarantee that she will have the full support of the administration, particularly a Congress headed by Speaker Romualdez. Deny it as much as they want, but even their own friends and relatives swear that there is no love lost between them. Instead, it’s all distrust and distaste.

Declaring herself to be an “independent candidate” allows Imee to have her cake and eat it too. She can thumb her nose at those who cancelled her politically, show Filipinos the value of loyalty to those who stood by her during her political “exclusion” and prove to the Duterte supporters that she has courage as much as her friend Sara Duterte.

There is a popular post on social media that says: “Don’t stay where you are disrespected. Go where you are recognized.” If Senator Imee lives up to her independence, loyalty to friends and cause and continues to be tactical and strategic in her narrative and objectives, she may have more to offer to voters than the troublemakers or “Gawa Gulo” inside the administration.