Former President Duterte, it seems, prefers to be a big fish in a small pond rather than being a small fish in a big pond.
Once upon a time, not too long ago, his daughter, the implacable and feisty Vice President Sara announced that three members of her family, her two brothers and the patriarch, will join the 2025 senatorial race.
But there has been a significant downsizing suddenly: the former president will, instead, go back to his old post as mayor of Davao City with his son , now the incumbent mayor, in tow as his running mate. Another son will also not run as senator but will seek a seat in the House of Representatives.
What could have possibly changed the original plan as earlier announced by the controversial fighting Veep?
It’s dicey to defy reality. Their popular ratings have gone down, no thanks to the series of publics hearings done by four committees in the House aptly known as the Quadcom.
So far, resource persons invited to the hearings, from police to politicians, have bared damning revelations that, to be polite about it, are not good for the former president and his team. This, notwithstanding, the Duterte patriarch is willing,if invited, to attend the hearing on the condition the member law makers will ask educated questions. The arrogance is still there.
It’s not just the House hearings are pulling the Dutertes down, or the ex-president to be exact. He is not exactly in the pink of health for a 73-year old former strong man. He himself calmy admitted in a media interview that he has cancer– that much he revealed.How he looks today betrays his state of health or the big C.
“The only way to defeat a tyrant is to humanize him”, wrote Gabriel Garcia Marquez in “The Autumn of the Patriarch”. “The fear of death.”Marquez added. “ is the amber of happiness. Age and sickness are the common denominator of being human.
But Duterte is not an ordinary backyard weed.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) wants him and his cohorts in the war against drugs under his watch for alleged crime against humanity. Duterte and some of his former officials are now on the arrest list.
“The bells of glory that announced to the world the good news that the uncountable time of eternity has come to an end”, Marquez wro
The ICC warrants of arrest may be coming this year and there’s nothing the present administration can do to stop them, notwithstanding the earlier promise.
While defying the ICC threat, Duterte his offering peace to those who suffered during the war on drugs. One of them is former senator Leila de Lima who was jailed for seven years on fabricated drug charges until she was acquitted by the courts after the Duterte reign.
The former senator is in no mood to accept his former tormentor’s overture of let bygones be bygones. She wants justice and vindication, not simply a token apology.
Besides, the former strong man appears to be unrepentant sinner. There’s even a threat to have a salacious video reproduced and sold in the streets as an X-rated merchandise. The boars in Duterte’s vineyard at the time went wild during a legislative HEARING over the video that was found to be fabricated later on.
Who wants the strongman”s peace overture?
Meantime, a former Cabinet member, surprise, sees an Achiless heel of his former boss, He’s now challenging the latter’s bid to be mayor again of the fabled city of Davao where criminals never saw the light of day under Duterte, so his supporters tell the tale.
The 2025 polls will be a litmus test on the Filipinos’ political maturity after six years of political experience with Duterte. Surveys are snapshots of the national mood vis-à-vis the House hearings announcing all the bad news in Duterte’s time.
A show-up at the House hearing by no less than the principal person of interest can change the picture or make it worse. Let it be known that human being can also change his mind. Or his allies can always interpret why.
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If he and his two sons win in the 2025 local election ,Duterte will have proved his political downsizing right. Their national reputation, already besmirched by revelations in the Quadcom probes is another thing. After all, all politics is local, according to American politician.
Tbe once robust voice of a very powerful politician resonated across the nation and feared by many. Now the confession that is also a mortal add a new dimension to his unprecedented arrogance that once RUINED democracy and justice in the land.
Is the former President now in the autumn of his life with the new facts he’s in?
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“An old man and a comic tyrant who never knew where the reverse side was,” Marquez wrote of his character , apropos a general, in his novel.”
Duterte might as well be that general.
The reverse side is what awaits Vice President Sara who, once upon time was felt likely to inherit her father’s position as the highest official in the land.
Not if the presidential cousin is there who is also having a moist eye in the presidency in 2028 and moving fast and furious on the current trend of whodunnits in the House probes.
She has yet to issue a statement that will create headliness, again, for better not for worse, especially in the wake of her father’s declaration of political and personal check-list.
