Mutual annihilation

If the Dutertes want to become the new opposition, they would have to stop flailing away at their enemies and learn precision assault.

There’s a lot of dirt (and not the one covering the dictator’s remains in the heroes’ cemetery) that they can dig up on the current administration.

They need the sharp focus and firm hand of the sniper who gunned down mayor Antonio Halili of Tanauan, Batangas in 2018 from a distance of over 250 feet. Then president Rodrigo Duterte had described Halili as a narco politician.

Former sweepstakes general manager Royina Garma said the gunman, who remains at large, was a police sniper, with a certain Major Albotra from Central Visayas part of the team that carried out the hit.

The chichiria network (move over, Marites) is now speculating that the sniper could be the one that Vice President Sara Duterte says she has contracted (and who has agreed) to assassinate President Marcos, First Lady Liza and Speaker Martin Romualdez, to avenge her in case she is murdered.

It must be strange being part of a family for whom murder is a way of life, where the thought of killing or being killed is the reality rather than just the stuff of movies.

In a pre-dawn expletive-laden rant after her beloved chief of staff Zuleika Lopez narrowly avoided ending up in the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW), VP Sara showed that she is Rodrigo Duterte’s daughter after all.

Unlike in her two-hour “drag me to hell” press conference, during which she kept her cool and showed impressive control – and even a surprising sense of humor – the VP lost it in her weekend rant, coming off like a person in dire need of anger management.

She has since been trying to walk back her “kill” threat.

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If any person other than a Duterte had disclosed contracting a hit on BBM, his wife and his favorite cousin, everyone would have dismissed it as a silly joke or plain wishful thinking.

But because of the track record of the Dutertes in the neutralization of those who incur their ire, the whole world believed VP Sara when she said that her statement was “no joke, no joke.”

BBM considered the threat serious enough to issue his strongest statement yet on his estranged UniTeam partner’s animosity toward him and his relatives.

Although he did not mention the VP by name, BBM’s references were clear giveaways – about “kuwentong chichiria,”  the truth not being eliminated through “tokhang” and the refusal to explain the utilization of public funds.

While going after the VP for several valid reasons, the government should avoid turning her into an underdog.

VP Sara raised some points that resonate among Duterte supporters. Why isn’t anyone taking seriously her claim that there is a threat to her life? Isn’t the life of the Vice President of the republic valuable enough?

Her elimination – either from office through impeachment, or from the face of the Earth through assassination – has been a scenario raised by her camp amid their open suspicion that Romualdez wants to replace her, as part of his dream of succeeding BBM in 2028.

The National Bureau of Investigation – the agency tasked to validate threats to the safety of top public officials – said Monday that it had detected no active threat against the life of the VP.

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Another valid point raised by VP Sara, who is a lawyer like her father, is why a House resource person should be detained in the CIW, which is supposed to be a facility for convicted prisoners.

The VP went ballistic after the House made a late-night effort to transfer Zuleika Lopez from the Batasang Pambansa detention facility to the “Correctional.” The Duterte camp has lambasted what it sees as the abuse of contempt powers of Congress.

Maybe the House thought it would get the same acquiescence from Lopez, herself a lawyer, as alleged POGO incorporator Cassandra Li Ong, who was also ordered detained at the CIW by the quad comm.

The House shouldn’t have been surprised by the VP’s reaction. On the other hand, the chamber was just reacting to the VP’s flouting of House rules. She had ignored appeals not to spend the night at the Batasan when she insisted on keeping Lopez company in detention, and then later staying overnight in her brother’s office.

Congress should clarify the gray areas in its contempt and detention powers. Precedents are being set. In case of a reversal of political fortune, those who voted to send Lopez to the CIW might find themselves on the receiving end of the abuse of such powers.

We saw a dramatic reversal of fortune in the 2022 race. It could happen again, although surely not by throwing a hissy fit. The VP should stop treating people like that Davao City court sheriff whom she slugged in public for defying her.

Her non-friends in the administration aren’t going to cower like that poor sheriff. They don’t get mad, they get even. She should consider doing the same.

Instead of ranting like a madwoman that BBM “doesn’t know how to be president,” she should tell the Duterte minions (there must still be a number of them in government) to dig up evidence to prove her point. They should come up with something as damning as the acknowledgment receipts for her confidential fund expenditures bearing signatures of popular snacks or chichiria.

In this ugly brawl, the 22 million who didn’t go for the UniTeam are shaking their heads and thinking, ibinoto nyo kasi. These ex-teammates truly deserve each other.

The mutual annihilation could prove beneficial to the country, allowing the emergence of a credible third force by the time 2028 rolls around. We wish.