By: Atty. Marlo T. Cristobal
Unless President Marcos undertakes drastic changes in his style of governance, VP Sara’s breakaway from his administration might just be a time bomb that will explode into a political turmoil and usher in political changes of earth-shaking extent.
We must take note that VP Sara’s resignation from the Cabinet of President Marcos is not-a-spur-of-the-moment decision, but a calculated reaction to a grave call to arms.
We maintain the theory that the recent KOJC siege was the last straw for the Dutertes long-standing distress: FP Duterte was being persistently subjected from the beginning to threats of ICC investigation and arrest warrant, and other calls for his criminal persecutions like the sword of Damocles hanging over his head and VP Sara being intensely and persistently trashed and maligned in obvious orchestration by the close allies of President Marcos despite her being the teammate of Marcos party and Marcos cabinet. In all these, Marcos could only come up occasionally with a snippy and faint expressions of defense for the father and daughter, something that could only send FP Duterte, the veteran and subtle politician, into simulated smiles knowing that he was confronted with another “Otoy” in the government that was dealing him a mere plastic treatment. For FP Duterte the above actuations of Marcos and his confederates were painful to behold, and for VP Duterte, were more painful to realize, considering her fatal mistake in throwing her support for Marcos that guaranteed his win over the presidency.
The raid and shakedown of KOJC in excessive force and violence was intended to slap, humiliate and challenge the Dutertes. FP Duterte is the legal administrator of KOJC properties, but more importantly, he is the acknowledged and revered political leader and Godfather of the Mindanaoans and Visayans. To send two battalions of policemen in full battle gear and armed to the teeth to wreak havoc in abandon and in lawlessness in his realm as administrator and in his very Davao kingdom in which he is conceded the political king, he was too smart and scarred a political warrior not to see through the message and its impact on the honor and dignity of a kingpin like him and on his ally Mindanaoans’ and Visayans.’ Hence, he unsheathed his quick reply, the raid is “absolutely unacceptable,” which to us is pregnant with bellicosity, that in fact his second raging message crystallized it better. As we stated in our previous write-up, by these words FP Duterte drew the battle lines to call to political arms.
It is from this premise that Mayor Baste boldly ranted and raved in a rally directly against Marcos with cogent issues. Followed by his sister’s sudden resignation from the Marcos administration. We were made to understand that she is the more vicious fighter and acerbic in the family. The more fearless and ferocious. These ranting and raving and the sudden breaking away from the government staged by the children on the heels of their father’s angry words of “absolutely unacceptable,” and “cannot go unpunished,” are telltale rumblings of grave political trouble. After all her resignation from a government whose installation she was instrumental in, to us, not an empty act devoid of meaning. We anticipate with bated breath her proverbial firepower unleashed — momentously.
Now clearly President Marcos confronts two dauntingly gloomy issues, one external (the war threatening WPS issue with China) and internal (the violent and illegal raid of KOJC, along with other local issues like the massive and earthshaking corruption in the government, poverty, etc.), all issues having one singular denominator —Malacañang ineptness!
