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The signs of a bitter breakup continue to unravel, as Vice President Sara Duterte says ‘never again’ to an alliance with the Marcoses
Not only do they not talk anymore, one is also denying they were ever friends.
Vice President Sara Duterte’s ongoing post-mortem of her dissolved alliance with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. gets bleaker and bleaker, as she claims to be the target of political attacks under the current administration.
“Hindi naman kasi kami talaga nagkausap niyan. Hindi kami magkaibigan, unang-una. Nagkakilala lang kami dahil naging running mate kami. So bago pa man kami naging running mates, hindi na kami nag-uusap,” Duterte told reporters after she attended the first day of congressional inquiry into her alleged misuse of public funds.
(We don’t really talk. First of all, we’re not friends. We just met when we became running mates. Before we became running mates, we weren’t talking.)
“Nagkausap lang kami during the campaign at dahil sa trabaho noon. Ang kaibigan ko talaga si Senator Imee Marcos,” she added.
(We just started talking during the campaign and because of the job before. But my friend really is Senator Imee Marcos.)
Marcos and Duterte not having a solid foundation of friendship isn’t really news, but to hear the Vice President say it candidly is noteworthy.
Insiders know that while the two kept it chummy during and after the campaign trail, they had no personal ties. Duterte is closer to Senator Imee Marcos, brother of the President.
Sara’s father Rodrigo Duterte, who reveres the dictator and elder Marcos, also once alluded to Marcos Jr. as a weak leader, and later, in an ugly word war, accused his successor in Malacañang of drug use.
Marcos and VP Duterte struggled to keep the facade of a happy partnership after the elections, as Duterte’s infighting with Marcos’ allies spilled into public view. Duterte had separate fights with the President’s cousin, House Speaker Martin Romualdez, and First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos.
The final nail in the coffin was her resignation from the Marcos Cabinet in June, signaling the end of the 2022 alliance, and kickstarting an intensified attack by the House of Representatives against the Vice President, particularly on her allegedly anomalous confidential expenses in the past.
Does she think a statement by the President expressing support for her could make the “well-funded” political attacks — in her own words — go away?
“Hindi ako humihingi ng tulong. Alam ‘yan ng tatay ko, naging mayor siya, naging president siya,” she said. (I don’t ask for help. My father, who became mayor and president, knows that.)
But does she regret being part of the “Uniteam”? Duterte joked that her answer deserves to be said in a sit-down interview. But she no longer wants to be allied with the Marcoses, saying: “Never again.”
Seems like just any other bitter couple breakup, except that it involves the country’s two highest officials. – Rappler.com
