by Diego Morra
Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio needs more than a battalion of bodyguards but more than that, she has to deploy a division of propagandists, call them trolls and crones, operating out of Davao City and under the command of image makers who pander to Sara’s need to look charming despite her aversion to crowds and her failure to stitch together decent sentences that fourth graders could understand.
Yes, it is damn true. Sara is a bad public speaker, perhaps as worse as her record as a public official, and yet she argues that she was groomed to be the country’s president, meaning she has a franchise to occupy Malacanang. Her obsession with political power, coupled with her delusion that the Filipino people await her presidency like the coming of messiah, only confirms what his own father said many years ago—that she is pig-headed and brooks no opposition, criticism or counsel, not even from her friend and image-builder Malou Tiquia. Sara is damaged goods, and no amount of daily pablum, the endless stream of photos of tree-planting, false charity and activities designed to show that she is working would destroy her status as a non-performing official.
Yet, the Sara camp has the effrontery to engage in the industrial production of daily gibberish to massage her decaying ego, putting out praise releases in Filipino and English in a vain attempt to support her delusion that she is the choice of Filipino people. If you read the daily tongue bath they give Sara, the impeachment case is part of a conspiracy to prevent her from ascending to the pinnacle of political power. In their reckoning, all the articles of impeachment filed against were manufactured, based on fabricated evidence to subvert the will of the 32-million digitalized voters who chose her.
Sara’s case is that of a one-track mind marinated in solipsism created in a frozen cerebrum. Who the hell does she think she is? It is time for all journalists, commentators and broadcasters to put her in her proper place. She is only as good as the last press release churned out by her PR operators who also control survey firms, just like a senator who does little legislative work and disingenuously criticized his own legislative proposal. Her kilometric press statements do not cut the mustard and instead get the vapors to those who try to understand her, which is a difficult task. Her yarn about lauding the Laotian authorities for busting the shipment of 521 kilos of shabu to Manila was a dead giveaway as the parties linked to that cargo are Duterte zealots. Ang unang tumilaok ang may kasalanan. This episode brings back to the public consciousness the earlier allegations that the ₱6.4-billion shabu shipment of shabu some years ago that Rodrigo Duterte dismissed as bogus was simply one of the many smuggling operations laid at the doorstep of the country alleged principal crime family.
Sara is also caterwauling about “fabrications” about her wealth, with assets listed in annual Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALNs) being denied as her own. These SALNs did not even bother to list the 22 firearms that she owned and the 29 guns registered in the name of her hubby Atty. Manases “Mans” Carpio. She has not explained why for several years, she had no cash in hand while hundreds of millions in bank transactions betray the utter falsehood. Sara also maintained equity in 18 companies, including several that had Jollibee and Chowking franchises. She even tried to freeload on the Senate by asking that her lawyers and staff at the impeachment trial be fed by their caterer, with the bill to be paid by the chamber. Muy grueso. Like the attempt to use manager’s checks to hide ₱96-million.
The icing on the ill-gotten wealth cake was Atty. Alexander Cabrera’s forensic analysis of Sara’s bank records, credit memos, manager’s checks and corporate documents that showed she amassed ₱817,874,867 from 2022 to 2025, when she also moonlighted as vice president. Cabrera’s conservative methodology showed Sara had ₱190.63 million in undeclared assets and income in 2022, ₱167.34 million the following year and ₱264.22 million for 2024. Last year, ₱195.69 million was amassed. Cabrera explained that when other amounts are added, the alleged illo-gotten wealth would zoom to ₱1.5-billion.
For all her angry denunciations of her enemies and perceived conspirators, Sara has been a craven coward who cannot wield a truncheon to beat her enemies into line. She is, as the Chinese would say, a “zhǐ lǎohǔ,” a paper tiger. What she totes is a toothpick, so craven and pusillanimous, not a pike or a sword. She isn’t familiar with that West African proverb: “Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.” Of course, Theodore Roosevelt appropriated that proverb to pursue his “big stick diplomacy.” However, Sara is long ion pseudoism, making a big fuss about her bogus accomplishments and not even reporting to the people at large about her many foreign excursions.
With her toothpick, she has brazenly accused the Senate, the courts, and even law enforcement of ganging up on her, as if she were worth the effort, playing the victim card after an avalanche of allegations about the ₱612.5-million in confidential funds from both of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd) being siphoned off, paid as reward to fictitious informers, the ₱12.297-billion parked at the DepEd regional offices and various programs while she flubbed the computerization program and failed to make a decent accomplishment in constructing school buildings. To cap it all, she has yet to explain how she and her father amassed ₱3.77-billion in various bank accounts as borne out by records collected by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC). #
