Open warfare?

Reuters has declared war between the Marcoses and the Dutertes.

At least, that’s what the headline says, as the Reuters news article then dissects the recent series of fortunate events surrounding the shaky alliance between the two political families. There has been tit for tat, and the titillated has the popcorn ready for the next installment.

There was the International Criminal Court (ICC) hide-and-seek, as we were left to guess whether the ICC investigators were indeed permitted by the Marcos administration to sniff around and scratch for evidence against the Duterte famille (given the apparent desire to rejoin the treaty establishing the ICC, perhaps, they were?).

Then, there was the quiet clinking of chains, when the specter of constitutional amendments and charter change was floated, definitely upsetting plans for what might have been a hitherto-easy presidential run for Sara Duterte. After all, with amendments to the Constitution being at play, surely, it would be so easy to justify a lifting of the ban on reelection for the presidential post (I hear someone chaining himself to the palace throne).

Then there was an unleashing of a thus-far quiet hijo, when Basti Duterte, currently mayor of Davao City, that springboard to national office for Duterte pere et fille, then barked at the failed policies of the administration.

But that didn’t even take the cake. We were dumbfounded to witness, just this week, a public snarling when both President Marcos Jr. and former president Duterte called each other drug users or abusers. Cocaine and fentanyl were the substances of choice, and social media had a field day with that blizzard of snow mud falling all around.

Who would have thought it would come to this? Open disagreement! Name-calling! Insult hurling!

But, having said that, is it already war? After all, Marcos Jr. still allowed his vice president keep her post as secretary of Education. He even greeted her, seemingly warmly, on the tarmac, right before jetting off to (where did he go, exactly?). By all accounts, she was left as caretaker of the government while he hied off to wherever (the Marcosian watchdogs must have been on red alert.)

That seeming cordiality wasn’t the situation between First Lady Liza and Vice President Sara, though. Was that an actual snub we just saw, when the first lady made her way past the vice president, reconnoitered to the official beside Sara, made her way past vice yet again, and effectively zoomed up the stairs to the plane, without acknowledging the vice’s presence?

Ooh. The cut direct. The ultimate and final social weapon. But, is that open warfare yet? Do we really know for sure that the families are at war?

Open warfare would probably be a hair-pulling, faceslapping, or sheriff-punching incident. Open warfare would be allowing the arrest and extradition of those who perpetuated crimes against humanity (a.k.a. EJKs). Open warfare might even be the bringing of an impeachment case against the vice president, as what was done to Supreme Court Justice Meilou Sereno during the Dutertes presidency.

Duterte the father has sprung the idea of a separate Mindanao, perhaps seeking to destabilize what might seem to the Marcoses like a home run to a re-election. As usual, the out-of-the-box thinker has managed to shake certain core foundations to our peaceful existence. Will a separate Mindanao bring prosperity and stability to both north and south? Or will that just destabilize the whole country? Are we to witness a true civil war? Do we get to have a say in the consequences of this political stratagem?

Is this the true declaration of war? Or is this a way to bring peace between the factions? Is this a chess ploy to divide territories so everyone can have a piece of the pie in peace, and leave each other alone? Or just a veiled threat designed to bring the other faction to heel?

What will this week bring? It seems like the telenovela of the guerra de familias has yet to bring in more sordid episodes.