by Diego Morra
Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Tesoro Go is a classic of a Man Friday who continues to punch above his weight, living on his own delusion that people believe in him for his ”criminal” obsession with public service, stretching his so-called record of “service” to include his “bleeding” show in “assisting” fire victims and those who rely on his redundant “Malasakit Centers” and the equally controversial expanded but redundant public health centers.
The trouble with this Bong Go is that he speaks with forked tongues and believes that his job as a senator is to replicate the work of the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Social Work and Development (DSWD.) Apparently, this fellow does not understand the job of the senator, like two other slobs in the august chamber called the Senate, and fails to reflect on the job description of a senator, which is to craft laws, and not to act as a megaphone for detained ex-president Rodrigo Duterte.
Go was elected as senator only on the basis of his closeness to Duterte and the endorsement that the latter gave him. Getting his valet and enforcer to the Senate is another step to push him higher into the political ladder, eventually to succeed him and ensure that the Duterte “legacy” would continue and be institutionalized minus the surname. Of course, Duterte was completely out of whack when he thought that Go was already in the big league, a presidential timber of sorts, that he could gnaw his way into Malacanang in 2022. Yet, who could compete with Go in brown nosing? Not Alan Peter Cayetano, who now fancies himself as the “Ambassador of Christ” but whose ascension to the Speakership was eventually paved by Go himself, to the utter disappointment of a Visayan congressman who thought he had already been anointed by Duterte.
Certainly not Rodante Marcoleta, who may just lose his Senate seat after bloviating on an Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) show on Net 25 why he did not include the P112-million donated to him by his supporters. Filipinos expect Comelec chief George Garcia to wield the “itak of Indang” in ousting Marcoleta for treating the filing of truthful Statements of Contributions and Expenses (SOCEs) in a cavalier fashion. This the same Marcoleta who promised voters a P2,000 subsidy on electric bills and who insisted there is no West Philippine Sea (WPS), thus smothering the Philippine position already upheld by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague in July 2016. Certainly, when clowns are elected, expect carnivals at the Palace. Of course, the brave, gallant and absent Bato de la Rosa is now hiding in so many cupboards to elude arrest by the International Police (Interpol).
With Duterte’s incarceration celebrating its first anniversary three weeks hence and the International Criminal Court (ICC) serving notice that Go is considered a co-conspirator in the crimes against humanity lodged against his boss, the Duterte gofer is now trying to wiggle his way out of the gordian knot that ties Go and Duterte, along with the perpetual Senate AWOL Ronald de la Rosa, by asking “why on earth was I ever dragged into this mess?” This statement shows that Go is trying to free himself from the Duterte albatross, contrary to his pious incantations that he will not only take a bullet meant for Duterte but also throw himself on a puddle of muddy water to ensure that Duterte’s shoes would not get wet.
On May 5, 2019, Bong Go declared: “I will go with President Duterte to jail.” Now, he questions why he is being dragged into the case, feigning innocence about the 10,000 murders in Davao City that the Duterte Death Squad (DDS) committed under the behest of the Duterte godfather, as retired police officer Arturo Lascanas revealed in his copious testimony. By his own admission, Bong Go was the “billionaire” that he had employed since 1996 to do such significant functions as purchasing LPG tanks in the middle of the night, keeping his medicines secured and properly accounted for, or keeping away Duterte’s purported harem of 13 women from internecine warfare. Bong Go is now telling all of humanity that he is more than pious, virtuous and observant of the rules of the lay religious communities of the Beghards (for males) and the Beguines (for females) of France and the Low Countries in the 13th century.
Earlier on, Bong Go maintained that since 1996, Duterte may have engaged in his usual roorbacks against his political opponents (including the members of the Davao City elite, whose daughters shunned him), but it was par for the course. “Bilang kasama ni Former President Rodrigo R. Durterte (FPRRD) noon sa pagseserbisyo mula mayor hanggang nagging Special Assistant to the President bago ako nahalal na Senador, walang inutos sa askin si FPRRD na iligal. Hindi rin naman ako susunod sa anumang iligal na utos sa akin ninuman,” Bong Go declared. Yet, he admitted that there was a reward system for the execution of “ninja” cops, with payoffs starting at P500,000 for cops who wound their “ninja” colleagues, P1-million for those who kill the erring cops and P2-million for those who waste wayward cops who resisted.
With the obviously unwell but still Vice President Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio declaring that she will be running for president in 2028 (using the pseudonym Mary Grace Piattos?) Bong Go is now faced with a disastrous choice: Will he allow Sara to run and act as second fiddle in 2028, or will he break with the leavings of the Duterte dynasty and engage in a battle that will hurt both factions and pave the way for mutual decimation? For both of them, they must understand that people are like shoes. If they hurt you, they are not your size. Sara had been campaigning for the presidency since 2022 and even plotted to secure the position the following year, when she wasted no time in castigating Bongbong Marcos Jr., with her minions demanding that he turn over the reins of power to Sara. Certainly not facetious about it, they thought Sara was smelling like roses and would ride to the Palace on a gilded wagon. Only for them to realize that their queen can’t talk and think straight.#
