The Dutertes are pushing the patience of the government to the maximum even as they issued their call for the military to overthrow Ferdinand Marcos Jr. when he is visiting the United Arab Emirates (UAE), an indication that Rodrigo Duterte is banking on his wobbly assessment that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) are still under his thumb.
Cheap thrills for a man who cannot even stand erect, much less brag that “toujours pret” still applies to him (it is the motto of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment of the US, but is more apropos to Porfirio Rubirosa, who’s always erect.) After bribing soldiers and cops with huge salary increases and leaving others in the bureaucracy in hock to moneylenders, Duterte now thinks that his goodwill, using taxpayers’ money, would prompt battalions to descend upon the Palace to kick out Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin and others left to mind the store.
Is Rodrigo Duterte sane? Is his junior, Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio, also sane? This Duterte show has gone old, with Duterte Jr. now tied in knots after failing to show that “death threats from the grave” are real. Only in the truncated minds of Duterte shills and stans would be a distinction between “real threats” and “conditional threats.” As Sen. Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa tried to give an excuse slip to the truant Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio by saying “A death threat from the grave is not a real threat,” he made a laughing stock of himself. How much longer would Bato suffer in compliance with his job as the defender of the indefensible?
While Marcos Jr. said Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio’s “death threats” would be confronted by the administration even as Sara tried to explain that she wasn’t making a threat even if sheminit, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin was not sparing. He condemned Duterte Sr. for threatening a power grab. The entire trouble with the Dutertes is that all their actions are motivated by bad conscience. Duterte Sr. wanted his valet, now Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, to run for President to ensure another six years of immense power, but Duterte Jr. had other things in mind—a free ride to the vice presidency and a possible move to destabilize and unseat her electoral sponsor.
Of course, the Marcoses also invested in the campaign of Duterte Sr. and won concessions in the process, like the reinterment of Ferdinand Marcos Sr. at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, the easing of countless Marcos hidden wealth cases and possible support in the presidential election of 2022. By slithering into the Duterte orbit, Marcos Jr. knew that he may have given so much goodwill to bloody Duterte Sr. that she can woo Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio to be his running mate in 2022. With Imee Marcos also wooing Sara, the Team Unity tandem was eventually sewn up.
Sara Duterte used means fair or foul to throw a monkey wrench into the political plans of Romualdez, whom she tagged as “tambaluslos,” by meddling in a row between him and Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo over a “demotion” on the sinecures at the House of Representatives. For the past two years, Duterte Sr. and Duterte Jr. had been bashing Marcos Jr. and his wife Liza Cacho Araneta Mrcos along with the Speaker, hoping that by doing, the ramparts would fall.
“No motive is more selfish than calling for a sitting president to be overthrown so that your daughter can take over. And he will go to great and evil lengths, such as insulting our professional armed forces by asking them to betray their oath, for his plan to succeed. The former president should respect the Constitution, not disobey it. He should desist from being as irresponsible as he has become,” Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin howled in an official statement reacting to the plea for a coup d’etat.
Always motivated by bad conscience, the Dutertes are notorious for their mendacity, and the Junior is as inscrutable as the sire. With the ongoing congressional hearings on the financial scams at the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd) as 30,000 murdered in the war on drugs and thousands more slain by military-police operations under Memo Circular No. 32 and Executive Order No. 70 since 2018, what right do the Dutertes have to insist that a power garb is in order? In other countries, Duterte Sr.’s threat would have elicited a swift and bloody response.
“Nakagugulat ang garapalang panawagan ni dating Pangulong Duterte sa ating sandatahang lakas na maglunsad ng kudeta laban kay Pangulong Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. This administration will not shirk in its sworn duty to govern and manage the affairs of the Filipino Nation according to the Constitution and the Rule of Law. It will defend its legacy before the Filipino People only by lawful means. The state will act resolutely to go against all unlawful attempts and challenges,” Bersamin argued.
“Hindi katanggap-tanggap ang marahas na pang-aagaw ng kapangyarihan upang madaling maluklok bilang pangulo sa pamamagitan ng pagpaslang, panggugulo at pag-aalsa. Maghintay kayo sa tamang panahon, sumunod sa tamang pamamaraan,” the executive secretary explained. But what can you do with one-track minds or people blinded by “tapa ojos”? The words “mene, mene, tekel, upharsin” at the wall during Belshazzar’s feast presaged the fall. Yet, how can Daniel’s reading apply when the one threatening to unseat the king is as bad, or worse, than the monarch?
