In some sense, a community of politically organized populace is a kingdom even if it has no king or queen. So 32 miilion people who enthroned Sara Duterte as vice president of more or less 100 million people is a kingdom.
The mandate of one third of a natin isn’t something too sneeze at even if the Constitution provides a way to wrestle that mandate from her legally. It’s the heart of the political argument of Sara’s defense team at the start of the impeachment trial.
Why not? Survey after survey says so, even if the political contrarians believe the polls are fixed to counter the negative comments about the mounting array of evidences that there was something wrong about her intelligence and confidential funds, both in the amount and questionable transactions. Forget the funny side, Sen. Ping Lacson said, enjoy while it lasts.
So, while the prosecution keeps heaping brownie points on how Sara handled the funds to her advantage, and Lorna Kapunan showing the way in how the defense team is bad off, litigation wise, Sara keeps her trust lead over the former dictator’s son by a mile.
In the kingdom of the blind, so it’s been said, the one-eyed is queen. Never mind if the blind leads the blind and both end up in the West Philippine Sea.
Is Defense Secretary Gibo Teodoro blissfuly clueless about who loves the Philippines less and China more?Apparently, it’s a working philosophy of how a few ended up with great riches even if they are found out political shameless.
Sara herself knows how many officials are guilty . Quite a number in the Philippines have dropped on all fours in obeisance to the god of mammon. Will the impeachment prove beyond doubt that she is the exception?
The SARA camp is hopeful. That is bolstered by the fact that the Senate impeachment court needs 16 votes to convict her. A snowball in hell is more probable than that number, even if the Supreme Court may tweak that target by a couple more senator’judges being outed to vote via the two thirds formula. That’s why they call politics the art of the possible.
On the other hand,Sara needs only 6 votes to be acquitted. At the rate some senator-judges are unashamedly lawyering for Sara is unequivocally conveying this message. “Tanga” is the other side of truth prosecution lawyer Kapunan in implied rebuke to a senator-judge who wanted to know the difference.
Knowing that the kingdom will not be given away without a bloodbath as opposed to bubblebath, the Department of Justice has filed a case of grave threats against Sara. Which means the vice president. must now pick her own poison. The old saying comes true: you can’t fight city hall.
The grave threat issue is the main thing because it is the plain thing against the vice president.If Kapunan had her way, Article 4 should have already ended the impeachment earlier. The video was ipso loquitor: it spoke for itself. Everybody saw the video, replayed ad nauseam, ad libitum for the nation, later for the world to see, what a Machiavellian leader was. Meaning unMarcos.
The criminal case seems to be an after thought easier to legally challenge. The impeachment is meant to establish the vice president wasn’t fit for the job, much less a higher one. All that is needed is preponderance of evidence as opposed to guilt beyond reasonable doubt. Many senator -judges and allies in her camp would like to see that prophetic big day. Even at this point, all roads lead to Malacanang.
With impeachment on one hand and a grave threat criminal case on the hand, it looks more like an overkill or overacting by the administration. Is persecution more prosecution the objective?
After the presidential son, Sandro, a lawmaker, revealed how the Duterte wanted more than their fair share of the pie, it showed that power can do as Lord Acton once described: power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Apparently, the Dutertes came to the wrong place when they laid their political menu before the future second Marcos president. He had been there, done that. Like his father’s favorite analogy, he was already in the saddle while political beggars were still on the stir-up.
After Sandro’s revelation, it now becomes clearer while the vice president acted the way she did in the famous video threatening the President, the First Lady and the former Speaker of the House. The immediate frightening impression (some said they felt goosebumps all over)was that she meant it in anger and was capable of doing it.
“Hell hath no fury like awoman scorned”, many use this toxic or intoxicating proverb as a default explanation. The loss of the political love between the Dutertes and the Marcoses , except Imee, was a result of a failed negotiation. She probably felt had she the strength to demand given Imee’s take that he owes her the political comeback. Didn’t she asked her kingdom to make him president after decades of being in exile after the EDSA Revolution.
The nation is witness to how the new president once vowed to protect him against the International Criminal Court for alleged crime against humanity? Now the former president is now awaiting trial in the Hague while her daughter is awaiting decision in the impeachment
court.
When the Vice President quoted William Ernest Henley”s “invocation”, did she mean that her kingdom will ensure that she will remain the captain of her soul and the master of her fate?
The other day, President Bongbong Marcos sounded like the man in the saddle. He certainly would endorse his candidate in 2028, perhaps with or without Sara as an opponent. Was it already a post-impeachment scenario?Is there already a fait accompli?
