Marcos vs Duterte — political dynasties collide

Marcos vs Duterte — political dynasties collide Featured

Lito Monico C. Lorenzana
LML Polettiques
22 August 2024
Comments:DISQUS_COMMENTS
MY column last week elicited comments on the juicy Cathy Binag and the paramour's exposés on the snorting habits of the first family — particularly of Liza — and Malacañang's inner sanctum. This accusation has been met with deafening silence — except for half-assed denials and attempts at a weak defense by the President's men. This titillated the paramour, now riding high in her newfound notoriety, squeezing the last moments of her 15 minutes of fame, bragging that she is somewhat safeguarded by a coterie of military personnel or ex-military types — and her threat of further disclosures contained in a hundred USBs detailing further interesting vignettes of shenanigans by powerful politicians, to be automatically circulated if something untoward were to happen to her.

These incriminating extracts are the fruit of the 10-year dalliance with lover, former congressman Tony Boy Floirendo, in the corridors of power. He has been reticent through all these. And it could be the right response for a scion of one of Davao's leading families. Or the man is simply intimidated by the proverbial "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." But to be kind, Tony Boy may just be gentlemanly enough to protect his aggrieved but decent family — a famous wife and hardworking and private children.

But Binag's rendering may just be the opening salvo to the political skirmish between two political dynasties for control of political power in the coming mid-term elections that could impact the presidential election in 2028.

Inevitable collision of forces

Both the Marcos and Duterte families are the current leading political dynasties, with the other 100 or so Philippine dynasties realigning themselves for their own maximum advantage, from the oldest, the Ortegas of La Union, to the Garcias and Osmeñas of the Visayas, and the notorious Ampatuans and the Mangudadatus of Mindanao.

To put things in perspective, what precipitated the breakup of the 2022 Marcos-Duterte coalition was the ultimate question: Whose dynasty dominates and holds political power post-2028 and beyond? The Duterte patriarch was unhappy with Sara giving way to the Marcos scion for the presidency, allowing the Marcos resurrection. From this vantage point, the Marcos family sought to rehabilitate their own patriarch's image, burdened by the decades of martial law and the possibility of extending their own rule through their progeny.

This necessitated the defanging of rival heiress and president-in-waiting VP Sara, rendering her castrated as VP and education secretary ("Two presidents: Impact on mid-term elections," TMT, May 15, 2024). The accusation of BBM being "bangag" by Duterte and sons was the Deegong's response to Marcos allowing the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate further Duterte's vulnerabilities — his war on drugs and the deadly "Oplan Tokhang" that laid waste thousands of innocent lives, the extrajudicial killings (EJKs).

Revival of 2017-2018 illegal drug shipment

Cases against the Deegong's son, Davao City congressman Paolo, untouchable while he was vice mayor of Davao in 2017 during his father's presidency, are being revived, linking him to the $125 million narcotics bust, which he has denied. He was accused by then-senator Antonio Trillanes IV of being a member of a Chinese criminal syndicate — "complete with a 'dragon-like' tattoo with secret digits on his back."

Current House hearings by a so-called quad committee — made up of the Committees of Dangerous Drugs, Public Order and Safety, Human Rights, and Public Accounts — on illegal drugs, POGOs, illegal purchases of land and the war on drugs on Aug. 16, 2024, brought in a former customs intelligence officer Jimmy Guban who named Paolo Duterte; Manases Carpio, the husband of Vice President Sara; and Michael Yang, erstwhile Duterte Chinese adviser, as the owner of the container with magnetic lifters which were part of the shipment of shabu in 2018 worth P11 billion.

Davao City councilor Nilo "Small" Abellera was dragged in as the person who asked Guban to expedite the entry of shabu shipments that belong to "Michael Yang, Pulong Duterte and Mans" — Small's business partners, he being their trusted associate.

Guban, himself convicted of drug trafficking charges and whose credibility is questionable, further named former environment undersecretary Benny Antiporda for facilitating the release of the shipment from the Manila International Container Port (MICP).

This time, the above hearings were conducted at the Villa de Bacolor Convention Center in Pampanga as an offshoot of the ongoing circus of hearings that purported to show the government's crackdown on POGO hubs operated by Chinese high-rollers through Filipino cohorts.

Which hearings involved the participation of dismissed Mayor Alice Guo, accused of being a "Chinese sleeper-spy agent" ("The spy and the paramour," TMT, Aug. 14, 2024) and whose fingers are traceable to the Chinese POGO companies' land buying and operations in Pampanga.

This convoluted mishmash of hearings, revival of old cases, and accusations of criminality proven or unproven aired during grandstanding congressional hearings given space in mass media are fodder for this election season and this type of dirty politics practiced by people holding the reins of power. It is a sad testament to the type of politics being played by all sides: throw whatever dirt can be thrown and simply work on those that will stick.

ICC probe — Deegong's 'sword of Damocles'

Late in the Deegong administration, the International Criminal Court (ICC) conducted a full investigation of President Duterte for his alleged role in crimes against humanity during his controversial war on drugs. The investigation focused on allegations of extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations. But on November 21, Marcos, who was then "goody-goody" with the Deegong, acceded to the former's demand to suspend or quash the investigation as the Philippines was no longer a member of the ICC and that Marcos was already conducting its own investigations into the drug war.

However, in early 2023, the ICC decided to resume its investigation, stating that the Philippines had not genuinely investigated the alleged crimes. The Philippine government and Marcos did not object. Duterte, who has denied any wrongdoing, has been critical of the ICC and has stated that he would not cooperate with the court. Marcos, whose relations with the Dutertes have soured, allowed the ICC to continue its investigation. The Deegong, feeling BBM had crossed his red line, went ballistic. Thus began the flurry of accusations on BBM as "bangag"!

The pot calling the kettle black

If the paramour and the Dutertes are to be believed, we have a first family happily snorting together following the dictum of "a family that snorts together stays, prospers and rules together." But at whose expense, while the head honcho and the spouse together take the helm of the ship of state? It certainly brings to the fore the question of whether the president is sober enough or even fit to be president — and if not — can his responsibility be passed over to an unelected surrogate, his very powerful consort — similarly stoned!

On the other hand, we have a dysfunctional family from Davao — and if Marcos and his cohorts are to be believed, the male members are the main actors in the country's drive toward a narco-state. This puts us Filipinos between a rock and a hard place — or, for the mythologists — between Scylla and Charybdis.

God help us!000
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