(Lifted from the author’s FB post with permission)
LET’S give credit to where it’s due.
That short message Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos admitted having sent to the members of the House of Representatives– and apparently allowed to leak– is a political masterstroke that diminished not only Sara Duterte but all of her clan.
The wags easily credited Liza Araneta Marcos, BBM’s First Lady, for allegedly having conjured the move as she was always thought to be behind every important presidential action. Or they’re just making her larger than she is.
But yes, give BBM a thumbs up for it, or whoever among his advisers had thought about exposing how little and pathetic the Dutertes have been since they lost power.
In his confirmed “text” to the congressmen, he said: “In the larger scheme of things, Sara is unimportant. So please do not file impeachment complaints.”
In the finer scheme of things, BBM is only borrowing from Digong Duterte’s textbook.
Digong, when he was president from 2016 to 2022, had tried to diminish and clip Vice President Leni Robredo. He failed because Leni had shown exceptional leadership and refused to be brought down. She rose to become a leader of many Filipinos at a time when true leadership was missed.
BBM is now doing the same to Sara, and he is succeeding.
He is succeeding because Sara has committed blunders that have dovetailed from her father’s own abuses and excesses, including alleged crimes against humanity.
BBM is succeeding because he and his team have done their homework.
First, they snipped the number of Sara’s security which some said resembled a private army.
Then, they shut the door to her once-open-wide vault of funds.
No more POGOs, no more access to the Bureau of Customs, the Pharmally exposed, the drug sources revealed.
These were wrung almost dry by the members of the Philippine Congress– through Risa Hontiveros and some allies in the Senate, and the QuadCom at the House.
Then they revealed how Sara and her crew manipulated the DepEd’s confidential spending which Sara could not explain herself.
Now, she becomes “unimportant.”
Unimportant because she had lost the clout and influence built by her father when he stepped out of Davao City to open himself to accusations that he is the master of all drug lords in the country. That’s what they say in the QuadCom probes.
Unimportant because even with her father egging the military to abandon the chain of command, supposedly due to a “fractured leadership,” the Dutertes found themselves without a soldier behind them.
Unimportant because the Dutertes could not even muster a thousand heads to spark an Edsa revolution– two words badly maligned and derided when the Dutertes were the kings and queens of this land.
To many, Marcos had seemed puny backtracking from the impeachment of Sara which not a few had expected after all of the YouTube dramas and FB meltdowns.
It’s not yet the time for an impeachment, though.
Marcos may succeed in having Congress impeach Sara, but there’s little chance of a Senate conviction when it acts as a court.
Everything can wait. Marcos knows.
Both houses are to cease when the election campaigns begin early next year.
Yes, it’s just going to be a waste of time. Impeaching her now would also create for Sara a stage from where to sing, dance, cry, and act her failing scripts.
In the bigger scheme of things, Marcos had put the Dutertes in their place– reduced, weakened, and waned.
That’s enough. For now.
