The vice president of the Philippines is an endangered political species. Numbers don’t lie. Survey ratings are a tell-tale indication. The most recent done by OCTA research, which gained credibility during the pandemic, is a fair warning to the so-called spare tire.
The latest by OCTA in October shows the vice president on the decline in popularity. She’s down by 12 percent and political analysts agree it’s significant. And they’re unanimous in their reading of the oracle: it’s self-inflicted. She has shot herself in the foot. Her rivals who love the smell of blood must have sense a serious injury on the Achiless heel. It’s serious enough to compromise running.
The cause of it all is the outsize or inappropriate intelligence and confidential funds. Those who took notice compared her flagrant allocation scandalously bigger than her predecessor’s, Leni Robredo. Robredo had none, because Sara’s father determined so for his political nemesis. Sara wanted billions for her vice presidential office and her portfolio in the Department of Education.
Her natural enemies in the House of Representatives, meaning almost everybody, pounded on her apparent huge appetite for intelligence and confidential funds despite the fact her job doesn’t involve intelligence. So what’s the beef for?
Once upon a time, intelligence funds became a hot issue in the Senate. The late business tycoon Levy P. Laus was among those invited to a Senate hearing to justify the CIF in their agencies. LPL then was encouraged by a vision of better things for the future in Clark he urged investors to start wearing eyeglasses. It’s a metaphor. Apparently, his CIF was deemed important in keeping a close eye on those who might want to rain on his parade.
Come now the old lion in the Senate, Juan Ponce Enrile, who later on would be implicated in the PDAF scandal along with his chief of staff. Enrile confronted LPL. “Why do you have an intelligence fund”, the co-author of martial law during the older Marcos time, barked at LPL. He was intimidating with his bullying voice and Inquisitor-like expression. Before LP could utter a word, Enrile brought the push to a shove. “Why , are you in the military?”.
Of course, both he and LPL knew that the state firm Clark Development Corp. was not and never has been a military department, although it has been the favorite dumping ground for retired military men for meritorious performance, whatever that meant , in their service. One time, the late President Fidel V. Ramos was so delighted with two favorite generals he assigned two Clark firms, one each to the generals, CDC and the Clark International Airport Corp.
The esprit de corp or the mistah culture didn’t work well. One did want to let go any of the two firms. In the end ,another firm was created to solve the unresolvable that only confirmed the old saying, not exactly a military one, that you cannot solve a problem by creating another one.
Sara, who is considered a shoo-in the presidential elections in 2028, was virtually trapped in her unique condition not unlike one in a quicksand. She is deemed unbeatable in 2028,not even a Marcos can beat her. She has the backing of no less than a powerful, popular president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who made her veep, probably a quid pro quo for an earlier favor. Whether she was used to help the younger Marcos to capture Malacanang for the second time, it seemed obvious. In any case, the end justified the means. She became heir apparent to the president, the younger Marcos mandated to step down after six years.
Not so fast. There is the first cousin of Marcos who is also eyeing with a moist eye the presidency in 2028. The two cousins appear to have mutual respect for each other’s ambition. It’s only a matter of finding a strategy that would help make that possible. Voila! Now comes the confidential/intelligence issue that confronts the dark horse ante circa 2028.
The vice president’s desire for a huge allocation became a fodder for endless political attacks from both the Makabayan bloc and the Administration bloc that made her look helpless and without justifiable pivot. Her unclear and unarticulated stand on the dispute between China and the Phiippines in the South China Sea has compounded her vulnerability.
It is said oftentimes that when in you’re a hole, you had better stop digging. Unfortunately for Sara, the digging was done for her by the late president , who urged her to defend her huge CIF for training students in military training. The former president’s advice prompted further damaging inquiries on just how big and how the CIF during his time as mayor in Davao City was used.
After all has been said and done, Sara is now in a bigger hole than she probably had imagined or anticipated. There are now talks of impeaching her. There is now a subtle shift in the Marcos administration view on the pending probe of the International criminal court on crime against humanity in war against drugs during the Duterte Administration. In the meantime, her principal ally,GMA is facing a graft case in the Ombudsman. She was also unseated from a powerful post in the House. One opposition congresswoman has tested the legal water of non-immunity from suit by filing a libel case against the old and decaying strong leader.
Politics is about leverages. Sara may not have the wherewithal against such. Old debts seldom count, especially if already paid back in kind
The political future is foggy for Sara. How she will emerge out of this cloudy, tricky terrain, unscathed and strong , will be the biggest challenge yet she has faced ever since he hit a sheriff with a fisti in the face after implementing a legal order that defied her political power.
As one media spinmaster quipped, it is difficult, if not impossible, to fight city hall. And she can’t miss the point.
