“Not everything is about you”
The trouble with women like Sara Duterte is that just because you gave them an inch, they now think they’re the ruler.
So how does one deal with an arrogant airhead like her? Well, for one, we must always remind her of her abuses as a public official. Abuses like overspending on her budget and overstaffing her security detail.
And she’s not even the President. So what more if she becomes one? After all, in reply to possible impeachment raps on her, she said that her position as vice-president, should she lose it, is really not a loss for her since she never really wanted to run for president nor vice-president. She only ran to sustain the development projects in the country?
Really? If she’s really not bothered by impeachment rumors in the house, then why are her ‘handlers’ talking to PR operators as I write this? On a side note, Politiko has reported that at least five senators are against the restoration of the vice-president’s confidential funds.
It is a scrapping of some P625 million of VP Sara’s confidential funds under the proposed P5.768 trillion national budget for 2024. The senators are Sonny Angara, Francis Escudero (the current Senate President), Raffy Tulfo, Koko Pimentel, and VP Sara’s latest BFF Risa Hontiveros.
And now comes a book ‘Isang Kaibigan’ for kids with her name on it. That’s good. But why make the government pay P10 million for it? Imagine this: P10 million can fund 40 book grants and subsidies at P250 thousand each; 50 recipients if at P200 thousand; or hundreds of curriculum-based storybooks that respond to literacy needs especially needed in our public schools.
But no, Sara would rather stubbornly print these and give them to a deserving lot like Risa Hontiveros and sell the rest (200,000 copies) for P50 each. Imagine that, you let government pay P10 million for its publication, and then sell it for P50 each to fund destabilization plots against the Marcos administration or to pay PR practitioners who would approach the co-opted press in the hope of coming against a juggernaut of news of possible impeachment raps against her.
The proposed budget for printing these children’s books is lodged into her office’s P100 million “A Million Learners and Trees” PR campaign, which involves distributing bags to one million students in remote places coinciding with tree-planting activities.
Sara is expected to receive a whopping P2.037 billion next year. That’s a lot of ammunition money against the Marcos machinery. But if Sara Duterte is looking for P10 million immediately to finance her book project, all she has to do is tell the PNP where Quiboloy is hiding. Problem solved.
Duterte’s family and friends in hot water
But of course they’re going to say that the allegations made by former customs intelligence officer turned detainee Jimmy Guban is “politically motivated,” thus denying involvement whatsoever in the illegal drugs shipment.
Guban boldly accused vice-presidential spouse Manases ‘Mans’ Carpio, his brother-in-law Rep. Paolo Duterte, and Duterte presidential adviser Michael Yang of owning P11 billion worth of shabu shipment which slipped into the country some six years ago.
He said he previously lied about the people involved on the shipment during his testimony for fear for his life and that of his family’s. But now he’s singing a different tune because he needs to tell the truth once and for all.
Let us await further developments on the matter and see how the wheels of justice would roll. After all, no less than VP Sara call this “political harassment.” But the question is, who is mudslinging who?
And of course no less than Sen. Bato dela Rosa would come to her aid with much canine loyalty, unmindful of the tag “tuta” already given to him. He should be having cold sweats lately considering the ICC may come knocking on our doors soon.
If and when this happens, expect a lot of “legal luminaries” sprouting like mushrooms to give their unsolicited advice on the situation whether the ICC indeed has jurisdiction over a sovereign country like ours. We shall see as this enfolds right before our very eyes.
His days are numbered
With Alice Guo now out of the country, the PNP should closely watch the premises of Apollo Quiboloy’s ‘kingdom’ lest he does a Guo and leaves PH as well.
I propose a 24-hour alternate drone surveillance over his estate and see all entrance and exit points just to make sure he’s still there in hiding with his concubines. Yes, his days are numbered, and he knows it.
So the question is, will he surrender to the police, or will he be a martyr without an assurance that he will go to heaven but straight to the lake of fire where there will be endless gnashing of teeth?
Remember that Alice Guo reportedly left PH through the ‘backdoor’ to avoid detection by law enforcement agents. PAOCC spokesman Winston Casio claims that she slipped out of the country through the backdoor.
But she obviously could not do that unless aided by an official or officials. We must get to the bottom of this and let heads roll far enough for them never to return in service of the country – or self.
It was reported that she flew to Singapore from Kuala Lumpur. So now that she’s out of the country, who must take the blame for this?
The Bureau of Immigration? The PNP? The NBI? Who? Remember, no less than Quiboloy has the means to pay off anyone for his mobility and freedom.
But just like any other ordinary felon, the law will eventually catch up with him, and he will have to face a judge and be tried. It will be a day of reckoning for him not as a “son of god” but as a “man on the run.”
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My weekly program “Leslie Bocobo Live!” over government station Radyo Pilipinas is airing today, Thursday between 1:00-2:00PM over 738 Khz. AM band. My special guest once again is CEZA Secretary Katrina Ponce Enrile.
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Random Memorandum: “Not everything is about you.” – Sen. Risa Hontiveros on VP Sara Duterte
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Factoid: Former President Fidel Valdez Ramos is the first and only non-Catholic Philippine President. Ramos is a member of the Protestant United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP).
(Leslie Bocobo is a former Special Assistant to the Secretary at the Office of the Press Secretary, Malacañang, and a former Public Affairs Director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources)
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