Will Sara Duterte change her mind?
“Millions pray that she be showered with enlightenment and wisdom by the Almighty’s unseen hand that created the universe.
“Unlike however PRRD’s unquestioned trajectory, the daughter’s is laced with imponderables.
As the clock ticks toward either the orphanage of millions of Sara supporters or her political resurgence from her self-imposed dormancy, the rest of the country hangs in suspended animation even as the declared presidential aspirants entreat the gods of destiny to short circuit Inday Sara’s appointment with history.
As in her father’s 2016 presidential run, hers is likewise marked with suspense and drama. Unlike however PRRD’s unquestioned trajectory, the daughter’s is laced with imponderables.
She remains and continues to be as enigmatic as a sphinx. Her sweetness and charm are matched only with steely nerves and subdued yet unbridled iron will.
She exudes warmth but maintains a respectful distance. She listens in quietude to the entreaties of her countrymen, but she appears unperturbed to the supplications of the throng of admirers.
Has she placed herself in a point of no return or has the burdens of the presidency compel her to explore the limits of her finiteness?
She said she would not run for the presidency. The roaring multitudes would not budge nor agree. They await with frenetic anxiety the verdict that will launch either a thousand anguish and a flood of tears or triumphal jubilation.
Will she change her mind? Will she remain a rock of Gibraltar, or will she be a phoenix resurrected from its ashes?
As she ponders her decision, one wonders how she will process the factors, as well as the countervailing forces that weigh in to reach an irreversible and far-reaching judgement.
From an inspired idea that titillated a crowd of overseas workers in Hong Kong that this writer espoused four years ago, which was sown in the consciousness of jubilant Duterte followers, repeatedly followed by public utterances in my Counterpoint show and press briefings as spokesperson, sparking a movement that steadily rose and grew to an unstoppable clamor for the daughter to succeed the father.
Like the dreaded disease, the crusade for Inday Sara to take the presidential derby plunge exploded exponentially, and the cry “Run, Sara, Run!” reverberated in every nook and corner of the land.
And just like the maverick former Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte, the worthy successor to the former’s post also caught the imagination of the people, enamored not only by her principled and uncompromising governance against criminality and corruption and love for the poor and dispossessed, but on her beauteous attributes as well, even made more pronounced by her youthfulness and her legal mind.
In reaching a closure to the suspenseful chapter of her life to finally end the agony and the anxiety of her legions of fans and supporters, she must consider undisputed circumstances and weigh them in.
For one, the thought of hundreds of volunteer campaign groups that spontaneously morphed across the archipelago who spent their own money and invested time hoped for her entry into the presidential race, who feel orphaned by her announcement of non-participation, vexed by an unfulfilled implied commitment and even angered by what appears to them to be a betrayal of their trust, who believed that she would positively respond to the incessant voices of supplication, places a heavy burden on her conscience. Ignoring it will yield disastrous consequences on her future national political plans, if she has any.
For another, the perception that she didn’t put a premium on the selfless act of a loving and kind father whose withdrawal from the vice-presidential contest removed the obstacle she herself imposed for not running for president, which selfless act opened the door precisely for her to reverse her decision, rightly or wrongly, will linger and somehow impair her image of a grateful daughter and replace it with an undeserved visual illusion of an ungrateful and defiant heir.
As Inday Sara engrossed herself to reflect on those riveting thoughts, the millions pray that she be showered with enlightenment and wisdom by the Almighty’s unseen hand that created the universe.
Will Sara Duterte change her mind? Will she remain a rock of Gibraltar? Or will she be a phoenix resurrected from its ashes?
Or would she rather be just a footnote in the dustbin of history?