by Diego Morra
Something is grievously wrong in the two possible Duterte candidates in the 2028 presidential elections. Both are claiming they deserve to win even as both of them are swamped by corruption charges, with Sara Zimmermann Duterte Carpio being slapped with four impeachment complaints and Sen, Christopher Lawrence Tesoro Go, CLTG or Bong Go, being named as a co-conspirator of the detained Rodrigo Duterte in the bloody “tokhang“ war that killed 30,000 Filipinos.
Sara has wildly claimed that her god has groomed her to be president in 2028, never mind if she flunks in essay writing, public speaking and can hardly arm her arguments with logic. Her few statements and pathetic performance in press briefings already disqualify her to lead a country of 120 million citizens. How can you entrust the lives of millions to an elected official who cannot even defend her own budget, maintains a fraught relationship with educational materials on classroom walls and blackboards and who had logged more absences ion her DepEd office than the worst primary school truant? Even worse is her claim that Filipino leaders have betrayed the substance of the EDSA civilian-military uprising as if she knew what the uprising was all about. Filipinos need no heroes, and certainly not Sara, who can hardly make herself clear about anything. Yet, she felicitates the Chinese with messages in Mandarin.
She simply doesn’t mean what she says and says what she means. This is only consistent with her declaration that in politics, since sincerity, honesty and credibility are not needed in politics. Reality, too, must be impeached under this Sara formulation. This explains why the country is suddenly swamped with social media ordure accusing the Makabayan coalition of getting billions of flood control funds when the progressive organization worked to expose the world-class scandal. Or why the relatives of Duterte’s drug war victims have been accused of buying luxury bags in Europe, which is a projection since the Dutertes have been customers of Prada, Hermes, Louis Vuitton and other Milan shops. Using artificial intelligence or AI (the Dutertes have plenty of it), their trolls and crones have propagated lies in screaming colors in the hope that sensible people would eat Duterte trash.
Bong Go, the gatekeeper who introduced Michael Yang to Rodrigo Duterte, now a co-conspirator in the crime against humanity case before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, believes that he is also entitled to wrest the presidency and deserves royal treatment for topping the senatorial race last year. Such leap of status from a butler to a senator to a would-be president who cannot explain whatever legislative proposal he has in mind. In one clowning achievement at the Senate, Go also criticized his own proposal, gobsmacking the more intelligent Senate staffers that the Duterte gofer was not fit to be at the Upper Chamber. For one who cannot explain his own proposals and need his consultants to be with him at the lectern, Go is a joke that has kept on winning at the sufferance of the electorate.
Go was material to the organization Pharmally, which scooped up P8.68-billion iob contracts during the Covid-19 pandemic that killed more than 40,000 Filipinos as Duterte, Bong Go and then Health Secretary Francisco Duque did not immediately ban the entry of Chinese tourists from Wuhan, saying “nakahihiya” to the Chinese and Duterte reducing the deadly ailment to an innocuous type of flu. Go was also linked to reclamation projects in Manila Bay, with one Pharmally player, Lincoln Ong, who claims being close to Go, also seeking to control dredging projects as far as Zambales. There is also the question of who profited from purchases of face shields that were dumped by the millions into the country to “protect” citizens. Go was also linked to the ouster of a Philippine Navy (PN) chief who opposed a weapons deal for being unfit for his warships. Surely, Go had nothing to do with all of these?
The early bird Sara is another delusional case who, wonder of wonders, contemplates that his march to the presidency was foreordained and that she was groomed from birth to inherit the mantle of political power, never mind the insistence of Go that he was the heir-apparent of Rodrigo, to whom he pledged his eternal loyalty, saying he’ll join him in The Hague since Rodrigo is lily-white, a leader who wouldn’t hurt a fly. That vow of loyalty ended recently as the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) included him as a co-conspirator. His reaction? “Bakit ako nadawit diyan” and that he abided by the law and never committed any misdemeanor as serious as jaywalking. After admitting in a Senate interview that there were rewards for killing “ninja” cops, with the bounty ranging from P500,000 for wounding a wanted law enforcer to P2-million for killing a cop who fought it out with the Duterte Death Squad (DDS.)
Much to his chagrin, Go could no longer erase the confirmation by the absentee Sen. Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa that Go himself was the paymaster, a fact affirmed by Col. Royina Garma who said Go was in charge of the “tokhang” rewards. Garma also claimed that Go was so impressed with the “tokhang” system and the DDS that he wanted to have a similar team of gunmen. Other witnesses with copious affidavits tagged not only Go as financial enforcer but also Sara who wanted a different system of making the DDS prey disappear by burying them in Davao City quarry sites while Pulong Duterte demanded the who crossed and mauled him deserved a similar fate.
So, you have two Duterte presidential bets in 2028 struggling it out this early but Filipino voters should not be amused by their bloviating rhetoric, They are two sides of the same dirty coin. They have no platform, no accomplishment worthy of mention since they are creations of Rodrigo, and certainly have no idea on how to navigate the treacherous waters of geopolitics and protect, promote and defend the interests of the Filipino people. Yet, they are united in their loyalty to China, like their ally Sen. Rodante Marcoleta, and would waste no time yielding to the worst demands of the squatter in Panatag. Both Sara and Bong Go have no redeeming social value to the people. Both belong to a graft-ridden culture that has made the national budget an annual opportunity for looting. To choose any of them is to champion what one commentator described as a “nefandous mediocracy.” #
