Category: rodrigo duterte

Imee’s last-ditch effort for Duterte

After the initial shock of seeing, hearing, Imee Marcos on stage sa INC rally at her dramatic worst yet, publicly lambasting her brother for alleged drug addiction and pleading that he leave public office and seek treatment because she couldn’t bear it if she were to lose him…. I could only marvel at the desperation — ang lalim, at ang haba, ng hugot, harking all the way back to martial law and metrocom times, which only reminded of Archimedes Trajano, doesn’t she realize?!?

Like Philippine Star editor Amy Pamintuan, I have yet to see PBBM acting or looking like he was high or stoned in any of his televised appearances.

AMY: … I learned to spot people high on drugs, or who were addicted. The habit takes a visible toll on the body. So far, I haven’t seen either BBM or his wife in a public engagement with bloodshot eyes or looking, talking or behaving like they’re high on drugs. https://www.philstar.com/

On the other hand, I certainly have memories of the former President Rodrigo Duterte stumbling, talking weird, looking half-asleep, barely paying attention, like he was high or stoned on something or other, remember? even if DDS propagandists seem to have forgotten, deliberately, as if the current mess only started with BBM and it’s all his fault, the floods, the corruption, the economic crisis. As though Duterte never happened.

And yet I have no doubt that Imee’s meltdown is Duterte-related. Matagal na siyang kinukulit ng mga DDS to confirm the “vangag” allegations, thinking that it would be enough to inflame a critical mass that could compel BBM to step down, especially since the “kidnap” and rendition of Duterte to The Hague. Marami ring nagalit sa kanya because she wouldn’t do it, and I actually thought she never would because, you know, family — blood is thicker than water and all that.

But now that she has given in, spoken out, what flashed through my mind was a VP Sara speech back in June, noong bitbit niya si Imee kung saan-saan, Qatar, The Hague, and finally Malaysia, addressing OFWs and referring to Imee as her “hostage”.

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte has challenged Sen. Imee Marcos to bring Rodrigo Duterte back to the Philippines, noting that it was the senator’s brother, President Marcos, who had ordered the former president arrested and turned over to the Interpol and the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“I always invite Senator Marcos wherever I go. I brought her along because I told her, it would not be me who will bring former president Duterte back to the Philippines because it was your brother who sent him to The Hague. You should bring him [home] to the Philippines,” the Vice President said in her speech during the 127th Independence Day celebration in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The Vice President said Imee will remain as her “hostage” until her father is released. https://www.philstar.com/headlines/

It’s been eight months since Digong was arrested and detained in the Hague, and there doesn’t seem to be much hope left of a homecoming. Kaufman has been doing what he can to delay the confirmation of charges, from interim-release request to lack-of-jurisdiction challenge, and lately the mental-unfitness claim which, even if proven true, won’t mean Digong would be released just like that. He would remain in custody, undergo treatment, and every 120 days he’d be tested again, and again, just in case his mental unfitness is temporary, or something like that. https://www.abs-cbn.com/

Back in August, Kaufman was also wanting to speak with PBBM about negotiating the return of Duterte to the Philippines. The thinking seems to be that PBBM, if he cared to, could prevail on the ICC to let him take custody of Digong, and let Philippine courts hear and decide the cases against him and his accomplices. But because PBBM won’t play along, their only recourse is to  remove him somehow and install Sara in the Palace, from which vantage point she could try her damndest to harass the ICC into releasing Digong, maybe with the help of tyrants Trump and Netanyahu.

In fairness, Imee for her part did hold those Senate hearings on the irregularities attending Duterte’s arrest, and then there was that Senate resolution relayed to the ICC requesting house arrest for the former president due to health and age concerns. But all ineffectual, as in, walang epek. She must have been under pressure to do something more, try harder.

Then came the flood-control corruption scandal. Parang heaven-sent siguro, the chance to charge BBM himself for corruption, and Zaldy proved to be the willing balimbing but his paputok videos proved to be duds, raising more questions than answers. Imee had no choice but to step up, give it her best shot, while the INC JIL KOJC UPI DDS peeps were still out in the streets, maybe get them sad angry agitated enough… except that INC cut short the protest rally after her speech and sent the people home instead.

Bottom line, Imee did it not out of love for country or family, rather, out of utang-na-loob kay Digong for the Libingan ng mga Bayani favor, which happened almost exactly nine years ago, she managed to remind in that very disjointed overwrought speech. So, yes, yun pa rin ang puno’t dulo, the hero’s burial, which makes me wonder if it was worth it. What if they had settled for an Ilocos burial instead. Then Sara would not be holding Imee hostage.

Mayhem in Manila . . .

The co-incidence was too much.

In the week or so before the huge Sept 21 anti-corruption rallies in Luneta and EDSA, Duterte propagandists were exhorting their online followers to join either of the two, basta anti-Marcos at hindi anti-Duterte. Nung pareho palang anti-Duterte rin, nag-plan B sila: a Maisug rally sa Liwasang Bonifacio, come one come all. On the side, Tiktok was alive with promises that Sara would be president by September 22.

But lo and behold, not one of the Duterte bigwigs showed up in Liwasan on the 21st. VP Sara, Kitty, RobinP, VicR, LorraineB atbp. had flown to Japan for a Sept 20 OFW rally, samantalang si TrixC was on her way to Europe and has been tiktoking from The Hague’s “Duterte Street” since around the 22nd.

Anyare? So they never meant to make sipot the Liwasan rally? After all those pep talks about people power, as in, let’s-go-do-an-Edsa, bakit parang tinakbuhan nila yung event, bakit sila nag-disappearing act lahat? Dahil alam nilang hindi kakayaning tabunan ng Maisug ang mga Luneta at EDSA crowds? Magkakaalaman na, at mapapahiya sila?

It made even more sense when the ugly riots broke out in Manila, near the Palace. I couldn’t help connecting the awful turn of events to the missing Duterte VIPs.  Maybe they knew this was in the works, and they didn’t want to be around when it happened, so they could pretend to be as shocked and angry as everybody else, and point fingers at everyone else’s corruption except Duterte’s? Read “Pakana ng DDS?” https://politiko.com.ph/ 

Thanks to YouTube, I saw enough live shoots of the action, particularly yung bandang simula sa may Ayala Bridge, when one tire pa lang of a container van was on fire, and spreading, and about a dozen or more masked youths in black were throwing rocks at a phalanx of police who were blocking their way to the Palace. The police, practising maximum tolerance, could only cower behind their shields and stand their ground, even when the kids came at them and beat at their shields with wooden poles.

I wondered who these kids were. I couldn’t quite believe that these were tibaks from the Luneta rally (who were said to have moved to Mendiola for a last rite but didn’t stay), because if they were, it would mean that the progressive Left had suddenly shifted from nonviolent to violent protest tactics?

It seemed to me that these boys were a different bunch, out only to provoke the police into arresting them so they could resist, fight back, create scenes of chaos, and incite usiseros and bystanders to join the march on the Palace, the more the merrier.  In Recto and Mendiola parang mas marami na sila, may kasama nang streetkids and riffraff, at mas magulo na, naninira’t nambabato’t  nagsúsunóg, at nanlabán when the authorities finally moved to detain, arrest, some 200 of them, di na baleng maakusahan sila ng police brutality, the young thugs had to be stopped from doing even more harm.

And when it was over, what a relief that the mayhem was nothing like that of Edsa Tres (May 2001), and that the arrested youth mostly confessed quickly enough that they were primed and paid to pretend and to play at being angry anti-Marcos activists, and to attack Malacañang and call for the president’s resignation, or some DDS sheet like that.

CITO BELTRAN. Were … they “hoodlums for hire” paid to agitate the police into attacking the protesters with a plan of creating negative content and videos for online propaganda? Apparently so, after some of the people arrested confessed that they were paid P3,000 to create chaos in the streets and attempt to siege Malacañang. https://www.philstar.com/

Which is not to make light of the plight of those mistakenly arrested and detained. Gets ko naman the concern of the organized Left (militants and moderates) for these poor kids and their parents. But there’s obviously a lesson to be learned here: stay away from masked figures in black wreaking havoc, or suffer the consequences.

… Garma in The Hague

On the ICC front, it would seem that Sonny Trillanes & Royina Garma have been sighted in The Hague, which would suggest na totoo ang tsismis, the police colonel will be testifying for the prosecution. Read “Duterte and Garma: The next chapter” by Marit Stinus-Cabugon.

The police colonel, merciless and feared even by her fellow police officers, became the face of President Duterte’s war on drugs in Cebu City. The war was indeed bloody and extremely violent. In 2019, the Cebu City Police Office was furthermore used to harass then-mayor (now vice mayor) Tomas Osmeña, his slate and supporters. Osmeña was defeated, and Garma was rewarded by the president with the position of general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).

… It is an interesting twist that Trillanes, bitter foe of the former president, was the link between Garma and the ICC. Maybe Garma weighed her options. Hiding in the US was out of the picture. As for the Philippines, case or no case, she is hardly safe considering her testimonies against former colleagues. Also, the line of victims of the Duterte years’ violent law enforcement operations and extrajudicial killings is long. Some affected individuals might seek retribution.

The postponement “until further notice” of the much-anticipated Sept. 23 hearing comes as a great disappointment to those who pin their hopes on the ICC to bring former president Duterte to justice. However, it also gives the prosecution more time to prepare. What matters is that he will not be released, whether to a third country or to the Philippines. Being detained far from home may indeed have taken its toll on the mental health of the 80-year-old former president. However, allowing him to leave the Netherlands before the trial has even begun would be a victory for the very man who is on trial for crimes against humanity.

Garma doesn’t bode good for the defense, and the Duterte camp knows it. Maybe it’s why they’re suddenly on overdrive. My YouTube algo is rife with new live videos of some DDS peeps rallying in Liwasang Bonifacio demanding that BBM step down because he’s just as corrupt as everybody else in Congress and the Senate and the judiciary, and retired military officers vlogging and pushing violent versions of a people-powered government cleansed of all crooked politicians, or something like that.

Malinaw naman na ang goal ay maiupo si VP Sara, ngunit ayon kay Randy David, malabo itong mangyari nang basta-basta. Read “Don’t waste the anger” https://opinion.inquirer.net/

The Marcos administration wants to keep the anger alive, but under control, so it can immobilize its political enemies—notably the remnants of the Duterte regime. At the same time, it seeks to purge its own ranks of officials whose greed it can no longer defend, not because it has developed an ethical skin, but because the specter of removal from power before the end of its term has become plausible.

On the other side are the Duterte forces, still smarting from the sudden arrest and detention of their leader on orders of the International Criminal Court last March. Their sole agenda is to delegitimize Marcos Jr. and replace him with the constitutional successor, Vice President Sara Duterte. Outside of impeachment, they cannot do this without the tacit support of the military and the cooperation of the middle classes. Otherwise, they will have to wait until 2028. For now, they want to keep the spotlight on the Marcos administration’s culpability in the flood control scandal, hoping to sustain public anger until the next election.

Sana’y magdilang-anghel si Randy. Because so far the Independent Commission on Infrastructure (ICI) isn’t inspiring confidence that all corrupt heads will roll. What is, and why is it all, going on behind closed doors? That Mayor Benjie Magalong has resigned in disgust has online groupchats buzzing with prominent names allegedly being exempted from investigation. Guess who.

Trust ratings, painful truths

I totally agree with Ronnie Holmes of Pulse Asia that the high trust ratings of Digong and Sara as of May 6-9, just before the elections, had a lot to do with the timing of Sara’s impeachment (Feb 7) by the Lower House followed by Digong’s arrest and rendition to ICC jurisdiction (March 11). https://www.gmanetwork.com/

I-i-impeach din pala, why did Congress not strike while Sara’s trust ratings were down, soon after the Nov 2024 hitman threats on BBM atbp., no-joke no-joke? Sa kaka-delay — first the Lower House, then the Senate: why was the Senate so loath to proceed forthwith, all of three months before May 12 — nakabawi tuloy ang VP, thanks to a very smart comms team that has had her strutting on social media platforms, hitting at the Marcos admin non-stop for the poverty high prices and corruption  (never mind that she has nothing to offer by way of alternative economic policies) and then, post-arrest, doubling down with the “kidnap” of Tatay Digong, tugging at heartstrings with the sob story of advanced age, ill health, 27 pills a day, at kung anuano pa.

Sa madaling salita, had the impeachment trial proceeded, forthwith, back in maybe Dec 2024, it would could conceivably have ended with a conviction by Feb or Mar 2025.  And if the DOJ had also put off Digong’s arrest till May 13, then hindi nadagdagan nang katakut-takot ang mga hinaing ng mga Duterte, and maybe there would have been no consolidating the DDS base, tsismis pa lang kasi. At the very least, the political dynamics would have been quite different come election day. And BBM would not be in the spot that he is in now.

And then again, I could be completely off the mark, and it’s all just a matter of charisma pala, as many analysts and observers say. I tend to think though that the old man Digong’s high trust ratings only indicate that one of two Filipinos think, feel, he should face trial here, not in The Hague, just because kawawa naman ang matanda.

Besides, say pa ng DDS vlogger lawyers sa You Tube, okay naman ang judicial system natin, Digong would get a fair deal. Yeah, right. Imagine the wheeling and dealing. But that’s another story.

***

Rodrigo Duterte: A Fascist Original by Walden Bello Feb 2017
Charisma and Rodrigo Duterte by Randy David Nov 2021
‘The Punisher’: Rodrigo Duterte’s violent reign… by Rebecca Ratcliffe Jun 2022
Rodrigo Duterte’s Popularity … Covid-19 Pandemic by Kasuya and Miwa Nov 2023
Rodrigo Duterte: The provocative but popular Philippine strongman Mar 2025