Her confession was written in cold blood, that she has contracted an assassin to kill the President, the First Lady, and the Speaker of the House.
Albeit conditional that she would be assassinated first, what was shocking was the casual way she can easily hire an assassin. Are our suspicions that the Dutertes are indeed a family of killers being validated straight from the horse’s mouth? It is.
Laying siege to her brother’s legislative office, she raged at dawn, yelling at the top of her lungs and lacing it with the favorite invective of her father. Did somebody count her put_ng ina? I stopped counting after seven. (READ: How Sara Duterte’s midnight briefing unfolded amid House order to transfer detained aide)
Next day at St. Luke’s hospital, she told General Nicolas Torre that she wanted the media cameras. Unknown to her, police had their microphones on. She was using chief of staff Zuleika Lopez for a sympathy script.
When the cameras were ready, she approached Zuleika who began her hagulgol while clinging tightly to her boss. Bato dela Rosa, reduced to being Sara’s jail warden, approached, too, and caressed Zuleika. It was a preposterous scene of supposed public servants exploiting us with their scripted agenda.
Monday she attended the hearing of the House Committee on Good Government. She created another scene there, interjecting without being recognized by the chair, at one point approaching the chair to stop an interpellation that was not to her desire.
What exactly is government’s tolerance level for Sara Duterte’s brattish entitlement? How long are we going to put up with these severe temper tantrums and manipulative outbursts? Where oh where is the law in all these?
Some congressmen of course tried bravely to put her in place. For that reason, the House is a lot better than the Senate where interpellators are the suspects themselves (except for the fact that the Senate President has allowed the public posting on the Senate website of their hearing transcript).
But our memories are still fresh. The House used to be strictly and unmistakably a Congress not just of baboons, but worse, of Duterte enablers. Let us visit that recent past.
One yardstick was how congressmen voted on the franchise of ABS-CBN. This was a defining issue intruding on the freedom of the press. What defined them at that time was their fear of Rodrigo Duterte and of course the reward that comes with paying obeisance to him.
Who between today’s brave quad committee and good government committee members sold their souls to the devil? We are asking this because we are looking at the residual effects of Dutertismo on our congressmen. It is a valid question when some have raised their defenses of the Dutertes on two issues.
“We will not share documents or transcripts of quad comm’s hearings on extrajudicial killings for the use of the International Criminal Court,” announced Quadcomm chair Robert Ace Barbers. That statement is an act of Duterte-enabling. That is the first issue.
The second issue centers on the fate of Sara Duterte. Filing an impeachment case against her is “reasonable but may not be possible,” said House good government chair Joel Chua. Among his committee members are the same personalities in the quad comm.
The scene has become classic: congressmen open doors to break the cycle of Duterte impunity, yet they close it back. The result is public exasperation at the House hearings.
Confessing to Rodrigo Duterte in the House that he was his avid follower in the 2016 elections, Benny Abante is perhaps the only exception in the ABS-CBN franchise. He voted No on the rejection of the franchise (1 of the magnificent 11). “It didn’t break any laws.” The same cannot be said of his House colleagues. But when confronted with the presence of Duterte in the House hearing, Abante tried to cajole the strongman and laughed at his jokes. Worse, he said the ICC was an enemy of the state and those who “connived” with it are unpatriotic.
Abante shed off his duty — as chair of the House committee on human rights. Families of tokhang victims were present and witnessed his deferential treatment of Duterte. These are the same families who have filed a communication with the ICC.
Let’s proceed to the other congressmen. Even a showbiz actor whose former home studio was ABS-CBN voted against the franchise. Dan Fernandez of Laguna (chair, House committee on public safety) is a living testament to how congressmen can be controlled by fear of Duterte retribution. He was deputy speaker at the time of the vote. Outside the House, he was branded as a traitor.
Abang Lingkod party-list Representative Joseph Stephen Paduano (chair, House committee on public accounts) is an interesting case. In July 2020, Paduano was co-author of House Bill 3713 that supported the franchise renewal of ABS CBN. On July 9, Paduano withdrew his co-authorship and subsequently voted against the franchise renewal.
He credits his change of stance to Rodante Marcoleta who convinced him that ABS CBN was evading tax payments by funneling funds to the media assets management company Big Dipper. It need not be said who Marcoleta is in the Duterte universe of interests. It need not be said, too, that Marcoleta belongs to a religious sect that operates its own television franchise.
The person to watch out for among the quad comm stalwarts is the overall chair himself, Robert Ace Barbers of Surigao del Norte. Barbers was a dyed-in-the-wool Duterte supporter. In fact, the question to ask is if he has truly made the transition from Dutertismo.
His background puts his role in the quad comm into question. Recently, he was speculated to have readied himself to resign as congressman. He was aspiring to be appointed secretary of the interior and local government after Benhur Abalos. The President instead appointed Jonvic Remulla of Cavite.
Barbers was an outspoken supporter of the Duterte war on drugs. He had nothing averse to say about the extrajudicial killings. In the House, he even attempted to revive the death penalty for drug crimes.
When Sara won as vice president, he offered her rent-free space in Surigao City for her satellite office. The Surigao del Norte province owned the building. That was easy facilitation — his brother Lyndon was governor. A Sangguniang Panlalawigan ordinance was effectively passed for the Vice President’s satellite office.
Barbers was not in the plenary voting for the ABS-CBN franchise. But for Duterte’s coronavirus State of the Nation Address, he was one of the select few given a prominent slot among the invitees. Because of the physical distancing precaution then in place, only 50 officials and lawmakers were invited. Of the only 28 Congress representatives, among them were Ace Barbers and Quezon Province’s Jayjay Suarez, who today is also in the quad comm.
Also invited was today’s senior deputy speaker Aurelio Gonzales of Pampanga, who is a frequent interpellator in the quad comm. Dan Fernandez was also among the select few. Abante and Garin were also invited. Garin had voted against ABS-CBN.
If we wonder why these congressmen continue to refuse the ICC or to file an impeachment complaint in the House against Sara Duterte, wonder not. Perhaps they need more temper tantrums and manipulations from her, no matter if she has already shot herself in the foot.
Perhaps after watching and waiting for the final outcome of all these congressional hearings, it is that at the end our choice will merely be between Team Kasamaan and Team Kadiliman. Residual Dutertismo is alive and well in the House.
In the end, Sara’s warning will prevail: Hindi pa kayo nakakita ng kalaban na katulad ko. You have never seen an opponent like me. But who will deliver us, ordinary people, from the evils of Rodrigo and Sara Duterte? – Rappler.com
