Category: inday sara

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.

VP Sara’s offensive

It was quite a startling show of hubris and chutzpah, the way VP Sara Duterte (of the 32.2 million votes) went on the offensive in the budget hearing where the House Reps dared make her kulit about how she spent past confidential funds instead of just focusing on the 2025 OVP budget.

Sara was likely still smarting from the Senate hearing that surfaced her Php10million children’s book project which has since been the talk of the hard-up indie writing and publishing world. And the Reps’ public hearing was the perfect platform to show her disdain for Congress by refusing to answer questions from a “convicted child abuser” (medyo unfair), trading snide for snide, and venting her own grievances, among them the rumors of HOR plans to impeach her, never mind that certain Reps have denied it again and again.

At some point it was clear that the VP was baiting daring challenging the Reps to cite her in contempt but the Reps didn’t bite. I suppose because there are other ways to skin a cat? Read “Unhinged” by Philstar’s Ana Marie Pamintuan. https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2024/08/28/2381011/unhinged

The hearing was held on the same day that the second quarter OCTA survey results were released, showing BBM’s trust ratings rising and the VP’s falling, with the President rating higher than the VP for the first time.

If VP Sara’s game plan for the budget hearing was that the best defense is a good offense, it didn’t succeed. It was painful watching the VP in her bratty worst, answering questions about the budget with non-sequiturs, and showing zero respect for committee on appropriations chair Stella Quimbo.

Perhaps all the frustrations over the loss of the VP’s perks – the P650 million in confidential funds, her Cabinet portfolio and seat in the anti-communist task force, and likely rejection even of the P10 million for her children’s book project – had all boiled over.

In going ballistic, the VP came off unhinged.

Even folks who had no love lost for Quimbo and several of the lawmakers at the hearing found themselves cheering for the House members.

If the VP keeps this up, by the time the 2028 elections roll around, her ratings could be below zero like her staunch supporter GMA in the twilight of the Arroyo presidency.

Impeaching VP Sara won’t even be necessary.

Unless, of course, the BBM admin messes up on Quibuloy, the West Ph Sea, and the POGO ban. Then all bets are off.

the sara & bongbong show

nung pinakawalan ang tsismosong si cong. joey salceda with the news that davao mayor sara duterte wants to run for president, naturally the big question was, with bongbong marcos or not?  is bongbong sliding down to accommodate her?  because everybody knows that if they don’t join forces, they’d split the marcos-dutz / admin vote.  talo pareho.

but salceda, like a true gma soldier, could not, would not, be baited about bongbong.  sara’s instructions daw were simple: “just focus on me.”  which joey takes to mean, talk about me and only me, not bongbong.

well, bongbong is speaking for himself, and of course he isn’t sliding down, why ever would he when the surveys say his numbers are up.  lalo na’t he already did that, slide down, in 2016 in deference to dutz, to imelda’s great disappointment,  and where did THAT get him?!?  talo na nga sa bilangan, talo pa uli sa recount.  loozvaldez, sey ng mga bading.  besides, walang marcos na umaatras, sey ni bong2.  LOL.

obvious naman that imelda, imee, and bongbong are desperate to get back to the palace — i think they think it’s where they belong, seriously — and they’re not about to give up the momentum they’ve gained after a lot of hard work and hard spending.

nonetheless bongbong could use a runningmate who would bring in the duterte votes, and i imagine that they’re willing to pay the price.

it’s complicated for sara because the super popular senate prez and eat bulaga icon tito sotto could prove unbeatable. i imagine that right  now she’s negotiating win-or-lose conditions in case bongbong wins and she doesn’t:  like immunity from suit for old man dutz — nagawa iyan for enrile back in cory’s time;  a choice cabinet position once puwede na, tho par for the course naman yan;  and, uh, compensation for lost rakets and other damages?

i pray she asks for too much, like term-sharing — yan ang latest buzz, three years for marcos,  three years for duterte, which is simply scandalizingly outrageous.    let’s pray they end up running against each other instead.

but in case they do end up joining forces, then we in the sabóg opposition are in for the fight of our lives, hopefully against the same enemies, which would mean getting our sh*t together.  #BlockMarcos #End Duterte 

 

 

Honesty, lies and Sara Duterte

this was first published in march 2019 @inquirerdotnet, when the mayor was campaigning for her senatorial bets. now that she seems to be on the verge of running for president sa 2022, time to double up. the marcoses are not nag-iisa.

RACHEL A.G. REYES

We are not naïve, stupid or gullible. We know and even accept that in politics and in public life, white lies, untruths, evasions, dissimulation, feigning, pretense and bullshit are at times necessary, even required for political wheeling and dealing.

At the same time, truth and honesty are universally valued and cherished in social and private lives. We categorically believe that lying is wrong. Lies rebound on the liar, and we know how a single lie can wreck lives and destroy reputations. Plato was unequivocal. He said lies were evil and poisoned the soul of the person who uttered them. The French Renaissance philosopher Michel de Montaigne concurred. “In plain truth, lying is an accursed vice,” he said. “We have no tie upon one another, other than the reliability of our word.”

We can be similarly uncompromising. We demand truthfulness and honesty from our elected public servants and from our colleagues and friends. We teach our children to be truthful and honest and regard as treacherous the lover, husband or wife who is found to be untruthful and dishonest.

That said, I have been trying to fathom Sara Duterte’s thinking. The President’s daughter has recently been saying a lot about lying and honesty. But given the nature of politicking in this country, the talk has spiraled out of the realms of reason.

Sara’s thinking

As far as one can gather, her argument can be unpacked as follows: (a) all politicians lie, everybody lies; (b) honesty should not be an electoral issue; (c) there is no legal requirement for senatorial contenders to be honest, truthful and of good moral character. Neither are academic qualifications necessary. Philippine citizenship and being able to read and write would suffice.

One could take the view that championing lying, as Sara does, is hard-as-nails pragmatism. Lies can decrease conflict, promote harmony, forge compromise. In this way, one is able to justify lies, accept the utility and necessity of telling lies, if the outcome is beneficial—if more good than harm can come from falsehood. The unbounded pessimist Friedrich Nietzsche went further. He said: “That lies should be necessary to life is part and parcel of the terrible and questionable character of existence.”

Yet, society cannot possibly function if, as Sara contends, we accept that everybody lies all the time. Society, writes the British philosopher Anthony Grayling, operates on probity and integrity. “For the ordinary transactions of daily life, we have to believe that most people are telling the truth most of the time.”

But public office is a public trust

Those who penned the Philippine Constitution would agree. Section 27, Article II is explicit: “The State shall maintain honesty and integrity in the public service and take positive and effective measures against graft and corruption.”

Moreover, Section 1 of Article XI states: “Public office is a public trust. Public officers and employees must at all times be accountable to the people, serve them with utmost responsibility, integrity, loyalty and efficiency, act with patriotism and justice, and lead modest lives.”

I can’t see how these passages can be read as anything but a stern rebuke of Sara’s legal justification for lying and dishonesty in public life.

Sara is mayor of Davao City and running for reelection. She has been doing no campaigning of her own. This seems to be because she is very busy being the campaign manager and spokesperson for senatorial candidates running under her regional party Hugpong ng Pagbabago. Clearly, she is confident of winning the Davao mayoralty without too much effort on her part.

She’s loud and she swaggers

Loud and swaggering, Sara has enormous presence. She is not a senatorial contender but acts like one. Those who think that she has her eye firmly on the presidency and aims to succeed her father are probably right. Which is precisely the reason why we should listen to her carefully. She is amassing power before our very eyes.

Sara advocates lying and dishonesty as acceptable for those in public life. Why should this be so troubling? Because, as Grayling writes: “To tell a lie you have to know the truth but deliberately intend to communicate its very opposite to your audience. You thus commit a double crime: of knowing but concealing truth, a precious possession; and of purposefully leading others away from it.”

Would Sara apply this standard on her children? Would she allow her husband to deceive her with lies and dishonesty?

Rachel A.G. Reyes (rachelagreyes@gmail.com) is a historian of Southeast Asia and writes commentary pieces on science, gender and politics.