FIRST SAY:
“The secret of happiness: Find something more important than you are and dedicate your life to it.”
― Daniel C. Dennett
◆ ◆ ◆
The resignation of Vice President Sara Duterte from the Cabinet of President Bongbong Marcos evoked many reactions, some of them about the state of the opposition in this country.
The usually talkative Atty. Harry Roque, former spokesman of President Digong Duterte, proclaimed that on June 19 when Sara submitted her letter of resignation that will be effective one month later, she “has just become the leader of the opposition” and added that the UniTeam electoral partnership between her and Marcos during the 2022 elections had just been “formally dissolved.”
Former senator Leila De Lima immediately took exception to Roque’s remarks, saying that the “real opposition” is founded on the principles of “accountability, transparency and concern for the people.”
The feisty former detainee at Camp Crame’s Custodial Center is in effect saying that the track record of Sara Duterte in government and public service is bereft of accountability, concern for the Filipino people or the masses, and lacking in transparency. These are regular adjectives coming from someone who personally suffered hard during the Digong Duterte dispensation. And I understand where Leila is coming from.
Continuing her vitriols, De Lima said:
“In her resignation, there was neither an acceptance of responsibility nor a change in principles and stance. How can someone who still owes accountability to the people be considered opposition? Above all: The opposition prioritizes the people. Not the expansion and maintenance of power. Not defending a wanted religious leader or the killing of thousands of Filipinos. Certainly not turning a blind eye to the oppression of our fishermen and the seizure of our territory by foreigners.”
Indeed, for De Lima, who is spokesperson of the Liberal Party (LP), Sara Duterte cannot be the new face of the opposition. She maintains that VP Sara’s breakaway from President Bongbong’s Cabinet is just a novel political maneuver rather than a move based on principles.
I disagree. Sara’s resignation is principled personal survival, with her sight trained on the elections of 2025 and 2028. It may be for her own benefit, and by extension for the benefit of the Duterte political clan, but it was still based on the principle that she must clinch the presidency some day in the future. This is some sort of making things right, correcting an erroneous political decision she made—that of running for vice president rather than president. But of course, that is water under the bridge now.
◆ ◆ ◆
Presidential Adviser for Poverty Alleviation Larry Gadon has his own take about the Vice President’s resignation.
Gadon considers the move as a “welcome development.” He stressed that the “duty of the Vice President is to assist the Chief Executive and to perform such other functions that may be assigned to her by the President. But how could she do that, when her father and his supporters and their vloggers were calling President Bongbong Marcos as ‘bangag’ in their well-funded rallies?”
Secretary Gadon, a true-blue Marcos loyalist, noted that “obviously, the former president and his supporters have a hidden agenda. Where could you find a president whom they called an addict but very intelligent and yet calm and the one who rarely reads speeches and is respected by many world leaders?”
Gadon also chided some netizens who criticized Sara saying that her resignation was due to her incompetence as secretary of education and vice chair of NTF-ELCAC. “It’s not like that,” Gadon said, stressing that VP Sara is not incompetent, but her father’s social media cabal is to blame.
◆ ◆ ◆
More reactions are forthcoming.
LP president Edcel Lagman, also the representative of Albay’s 1st District, said Duterte may assume the role of the leader of the “partisan opposition to the Marcos Jr. administration” while LP remains the “ideological and conscientious opposition to both the current administration and Duterte’s breakaway power bloc.”
Political science professor Cleve Arguelles said these recent developments point to a showdown between the Dutertes and the Marcoses in the 2025 and 2028 elections, but the “competition will be tough for the Dutertes” given Marcos’ resources in Malacañang.
The fractious administration forces may also give the opposition an opening due to votes being divided between Marcos and Duterte, said Arguelles, who also serves as CEO of the public opinion research firm WR Numero Research.
The lay of the land in the Philippine political firmament is getting to be interesting.
Comments