That was a riveting press conference by the bratinella last Friday. Some takeaways:
Vice President Sara Duterte is truly her father’s daughter.
Unlike her father, she doesn’t indulge in stream-of-consciousness diatribes; she has a wider vocabulary and picks her words better. But the same pugnacity and rudeness are there, with her expletive of choice not PI but the milder BS.
Now I can believe that former president Rodrigo Duterte isn’t exaggerating when he says he’s scared of his daughter, Inday Sara.
And now I can also believe their supporters who say the VP does have a strong sense of humor, although there’s a dark nastiness even in her naughty grins, unlike the wicked, un-PC Pinoy humor that endears her father to the masses.
Maybe the nastiness is because the press conference was the VP’s venting session against her enemies. Even her body language indicated her mood; she opened the event with stretching movements that reminded me of boxers waiting for the bell to ring the start of a match.
And she immediately threw a punch... line. Sniffling from the cold air-conditioning, she told reporters she was neither crying nor snorting cocaine.
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What triggered the VP’s outburst, it seems, was the comment of President Marcos about believing all along that they were friends. The VP had previously said they were never really friends, and that they simply teamed up for the 2022 race. Asked for comment, BBM said maybe he had been deceived.
In her press conference, the VP reiterated her take on the non-friendship, referring to BBM as “Mr. Deception” and giving him a score of one, on a scale with 10 as the best, in his performance as president.
People have told her, she said, that the country “is on this road to perdition... we are in this road to hell.”
Many will agree, although there are other reasons for this, among which are the entitlements that public officials like the VP insist they deserve, such as her massive confidential funds and state-funded security contingent.
The loss of such entitlements was among her beefs.
Plus something new: she complained that BBM reneged on his pre-election promise that if they won, he would grant her request for “air travel support” so she could visit her children in Davao any time. This meant giving her priority, she said, in what she described as the “250” – apparently referring to the 250th Presidential Airlift Wing or the Bluebirds, dedicated to providing air service to the president.
The VP resented needing to go through BBM every time she needed the service of the 250th. Once, she said, she was informed that First Lady Liza needed the aircraft. “Ewan ko ano trabaho niya sa bayan na ito (I don’t know what her job is in this country),” VP Sara harrumphed.
Her presence around the Marcoses, the VP said, was “just tolerated” because “I’m useful to them.”
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Those of us watching this clan brawl from the peanut gallery think both camps contributed to their landslide win in 2022. The combination of the Marcoses’ Solid North and the Dutertes’ bailiwicks in Mindanao and the Visayas demolished their rivals.
But VP Sara, who garnered more votes than BBM, seems to think the Marcoses owe her more than she owes them. Look how BBM fared, she said, against Leni Robredo for the vice presidency in 2016.
With Robredo again challenging BBM in 2022, could he have won without the Dutertes? Maybe the VP has a point. She said even Senator Imee, in asking her to be BBM’s running mate, had mentioned Robredo’s win.
The VP has said her only friend among the Marcoses is Imee, who apparently was the one who appealed to the Dutertes to allow her father the dictator to be buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
Amid the attacks against her, the VP said she once told Imee that she would dig up and toss into the West Philippine Sea the remains of Ferdinand Senior. Everyone is wondering how Senator Imee reacted to that unfriendly remark.
The VP’s laments boil down to: you owe me big-time, and this is the thanks I got.
* * *
Speculations are swirling about how Marcos 2.0 will react, especially with the VP promising to dish out more (coming soon).
Malacañang declined comment on the VP’s harangue, but maybe we’ll hear from the equally pugnacious First Lady.
VP Sara reportedly went ballistic not just over BBM’s deception remark on top of the loss of her secret funds and police bodyguards, but also because the Dutertes believe there is a serious effort to impeach her.
The House is certain to overwhelmingly approve any impeachment complaint against her. But the articles of impeachment will have to be tried by the Senate, where political loyalties are unpredictable. Impeaching the VP might have to wait until the next Congress, when the Senate composition will be altered.
Martin Romualdez is expected to win reelection and retain the Speaker’s post. But if the administration wants the VP removed through impeachment, it will have to solidify support in the Senate. The administration bets must sweep the 2025 Senate race.
I watched the entire two-hour “Drag Me to Hell press con” (as VP Sara described it), and I’m looking forward to Episode 2 (about “tambi”) and perhaps Episode 3 (about Liza Marcos, who is “another story,” according to the VP).
What did VP Sara hope to gain from her press conference? With her Cabinet posts, funding and trusted security escorts gone, and facing possible impeachment, she must have thought she had nothing to lose.
The VP was speaking to the masses in that press con. There are valid criticisms, amplified by Senate President Chiz Escudero, about her remarks. But her performance – her longest engagement ever with the national media – can have mass appeal in this country.
Her foes are describing her as infantile and unhinged, and advising her to have her head examined.But even if she is removed by impeachment for all the right reasons, Sara Duterte is going to be a formidable administration critic, all the way to 2028.
She could turn out to be Marcos 2.0’s nightmare from hell.