The country’s vice president is living in a fantasy world where witchcraft is exercised in the upper echelons of government and where every family should have spaghetti and mango float for the Christmas noche buena.
She tends to believe the Philippines would have been a better place had she run for president in 2022 instead of having allowed herself to be used by the Marcoses to win the presidential elections over then-vice president Leni Robredo.
She equates her family’s predicament over issues of extrajudicial killings, illegal drugs, online gaming operators and corruption in many forms to the country’s situation, describing it as the “road to perdition” that her erstwhile teammate is pursuing.
Her “one positive” reason for wanting to become president is having an effigy being burned. “I feel na parang, ‘Wow!’ Sino ba sa inyo, sino ba sa atin ang ginagawaan ng effigy? Sino ba sa atin ang… meron talagang tao na hindi matutulog ng ilang araw para gagawa ng effigy tapos susunugin, ‘di ba? So, naisip ko, when I become president meron akong effigy na susunugin nila and magpapa-picture ako doon kasi hindi lahat ng tao merong ganoon sa buhay nila.”
But at times, she comes to her senses. She realizes that she cannot strangle, even chop off, the head of a president who refuses to grant a student’s wish to have his watch as a graduation gift. However, she believes that she could just dig up the remains of a former dictator and throw them in the sea.
“Isang beses sinabihan ko talaga si Sen. Imee [Marcos]. Sinabi ko sa kanya, ‘Kung hindi kayo tumigil, huhukayin ko ‘yang tatay n’yo, itatapon ko s’ya sa West Philippine Sea … One of these days, pupunta ako du’n, kukunin ko ‘yang katawan ng tatay n’yo, itapon ko ‘yan dun sa West Philippine Sea,” Vice President Sara Duterte said, and then sighed during a two-hour “sit-down” session with media persons last Friday.
Many of her statements were ridiculous, some were comical, and others inappropriate for the country’s No. 2 official. None of it was a joke, nor unintended, even when she said: “Hindi ako umiiyak; hindi ako nagko-cocaine. Malamig ‘yung aircon.”
The vice president’s father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, had accused President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of being addicted to cocaine.
She has reminded the Marcos family on past occasions that it was her father who allowed the late dictator, Ferdinand Marcos Sr., to be buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani despite protests.
Former senator Leila de Lima, who was acquitted on three drug-related cases after almost seven years of detention since the elder Duterte’s presidency, quipped that the vice president “is a bit unhinged” to say things like chopping off the current president’s head and throwing the body of the elder Marcos into the sea “while making out her father to be a fair person who did not cross anyone.”
Lawmakers conducting an inquiry into her father’s drug war and her apparent misuse of public funds were one in saying that the vice president was trying to divert the issues to escape accountability.
Indeed, the vice president’s lengthy rant on Marcos was nothing but a desperate move to change the course of public discussion from her misspending of scarce public funds and the irregularities in her father’s bloody drug war amid the prospect of the International Criminal Court’s issuance of arrest warrants on those tagged as responsible for the thousands of extrajudicial killings associated with it.
Yet, the vice president had the gall to say she was talking “for all Filipinos who feel their votes [for Marcos] were unjustified.” But she was obviously hurt by the president’s remark during a chance interview that he was “dismayed” that he was “maybe… deceived” into believing that they were friends.
“Presidente ka na, importante pa ba ‘yung nararamdaman mo? Pati ‘yung pagod mo,’ yung luha mo, ‘yung fatigue mo, ‘yung stress mo hindi na s’ya importante. Because when you are president ang importante d’yan ‘yung nararamdaman ng taong bayan, ‘yung bansa. ‘Yun ‘yung naisip ko nung narinig ko. Talagang may panahon ka na mag-isip about deception ng isang babae d’yan? Ang dami mong oras,” Duterte said.
“Hindi ba ang iniisip mo, na ‘yung mga taong gutom, ‘yung presyo ng gasoline, ‘yung darating na Christmas kung sino ‘yung maka-afford ng spaghetti, ng mango float na importante sa noche buena ng mga bahay-bahay?” she added.
Well, she was partly correct that the president should be addressing pressing problems such as the rising prices of basic goods and the fluctuating fuel prices, but is the vice president, being the country’s No. 2 official, exempted from doing the same?
What if she just explains in detail the long-festering issue of how her office disbursed P125 million in confidential funds in the last 11 days of 2022? Can she just explain why her office spent P16 million on the rental of safehouses for 11 days? What do safehouses rented at P45,000 to P250,000 per day look like?
For those amounts, how many Filipino families could have spaghetti and mango float on Christmas Eve?
Frowning at the thought that her P1,500 could no longer buy corned beef, bread and other things but only chocolate and ice cream from the 7-11 convenience store, Duterte lamented that she never heard Marcos spelling out his plans to address inflation. Wasn’t she part of the UniTeam during the campaign until she decided to split last June because she could not get her two conditions: the defense portfolio and unlimited use of the presidential chopper so she could fly to Davao City anytime she wanted to see her children?
Sara Duterte has been so self-absorbed but says otherwise. “Alam n’yo kasi I don’t like talking about my life. I don’t like talking about my feelings. I only want to talk about my work kaya hindi ako nagsasalita.” Oh, really!
She says she’s “not a clone” of her father, yet she acts like one. As many would say, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Like father, like daughter.
She’s showing the world the kind of candidate who does not deserve to be in public office. She fits well in a fantasy world where one seeks distraction and relief from unpleasant realities by engaging in fantasy, daydreaming, or immersing oneself in fictional worlds, where one can see only what she wants to see and is in full control of her situation.
Imagine when she becomes the country’s president! She’d have access to much more funds that she could spend all she wants but would not want to be questioned. She’d blame everybody else but not herself each time she’s in a quagmire.
Well, she said the Marcoses “can drag me to hell” and once they all get there, “Ako pa rin ang presidente ng impyerno.”
The views in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of VERA Files.
This column also appeared in The Manila Times.
