Despicable acts

We cannot just make this thing up. And this is not the full story. Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte has called for the resignation of President Marcos. Meanwhile, cousins House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez and Sen. Maria Imelda Josefa “Imee” Marcos, who is seen by Marcos loyalists as having abandoned her brother, are openly quarreling and adding to the noise around the already muddled issue of constitutional change. Bloodlines appear not to be thick enough to contain the fractured alliance and keep the UniTeam from breaking up.

Thus, it is now even easier for former trusted allies who are not even relatives to jump ship. It is not surprising to see pro-Duterte social media enablers flock to the Duterte camp. After all, their being pro-Marcos was almost certainly merely transactional, if not opportunistic, moves. What is surprising is when loyal and vocal supporters like US-based Maharlika, and trusted aide and former executive secretary Victor Rodriquez appear to have abandoned the man they used to admire, support and serve.

And the drama continues to unfold, with the first lady Marie Louise “Liza” Araneta-Marcos obviously snubbing Vice President Sara Duterte as the first couple departed for Vietnam, and the former president now practically calling for Mindanao to secede from the Republic.

Not to be outdone is the skirmish between the Senate and the House of Representatives, with the senators disagreeing with the people’s initiative, and Senator Marcos serving as the head of the attacking force, now providing additional ammunition to the vitriol from the Duterte camp aimed at Romualdez.

Actually, this war started with Romualdez as the prime target when he booted out former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who happens to be a principal ally of Sara Duterte. The conflict intensified when moves were made in Congress dominated by Romualdez allies to strip the vice president of her confidential funds. It was at this point that the former president first spoke up and skewered the entire House of Representatives, practically calling it the most rotten institution in the Republic. In retaliation, a resolution was passed in the House urging the President to cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) where the ex-president is now being impleaded for serious violations of human rights and crimes against humanity. And all hell has broken loose.

The President has now been drawn into the fray. He is being accused by the Duterte camp of either sitting by passively as his cousin makes his move to allegedly advance his presidential ambitions, or that he is simply clueless about the moves of Romualdez, who has earned the unsavory monicker of being a “tambaloslos,” a word originally uttered by the vice president.

Senator Marcos, the President’s sister and cousin to the speaker, has openly prayed to God to spare her brother from the evil forces surrounding him. Recently, she openly called Romualdez thick-faced.

In the middle of these dramas, we the people beg the question of whether any of these acts is in the public interest.

Meanwhile, President Marcos and Vice President Duterte both say that they are still perfectly fine with each other. Vice President Duterte has no intention of resigning from the Cabinet despite calls by many for her to do so, even as President Marcos has assured the country that the UniTeam is vibrant. Unfortunately, the UniTeam is not just confined to President Marcos and Vice President Duterte. The cracks may not just be manifested at the top between them, but it has widened not only among the political class in Congress and among elected officials. The larger chasm is palpable in social media, among the noisy loyal and diehard supporters.

The vice president has admitted that the blowback from her Davao-based political dynasty is largely in reaction to what she labeled as despicable acts committed against her by parties belonging to the Marcos-Romualdez group. Despicable is a strong adjective that applies to any act that is so base and immoral, so worthless and obnoxious that is deserving of moral indignation.

And it behooves us to ask the vice president what these despicable acts are that Speaker Romualdez and his allies have committed against her. She has to show to us that it was base and immoral for Congress to remove her confidential funds, a move that could be deserving of moral indignation, when the truth of the matter is that it was widely popular.

In addition, the people who hauled her to the Supreme Court to question the legality of the transfer of funds from the savings of the Office of the President and turned into confidential funds of her office in 2022 were not Marcos nor Romualdez allies, but were from the political opposition. In fact, impleaded with her are the budget and executive secretaries in the Marcos Cabinet.

The vice president may have been offended by the presidential ambitions of Speaker Romualdez. But she has to explain to us how that could be a despicable act. She has to convince us that she is morally entitled to the presidency and anyone desiring to run for the same office would commit a morally repugnant and offensive act against her.

What might be despicable is the allegation that she was behind the violation of rights of drug suspects in Davao when she was mayor, except that this was made by Arturo Lascañas, one of the principal accusers of her father in his ICC case. And she has to prove that Lascañas works for Romualdez.