Like father like daughter?
By Al S. Mendoza
WILL it happen tomorrow, November 15—if it hasn’t happened yet?
That Sara Duterte will run—has trained her sight—for president in May 2022?
Again, the tyranny of deadline prevailed as this was written in advance.
But before I had finished this, Sara has withdrawn her bid for reelection as mayor of Davao City.
That fueled speculations of her running for a national office—either as president or vice president.
She hasn’t decided yet as we went to press.
Sara’s change of heart almost coincided with Sen. Bong Go’s sudden decision to forego his vice presidential bid.
“It’s a party decision as well as in adherence to the decision of the Duterte family,” said a tearful Go.
That party, of course, is PDP-Laban of which President Duterte is the party chairman.
Everybody knows that Sen. Go is more than a part of the Duterte family.
He’s been Mr. Duterte’s chief ally for the longest time.
Wherever the President is, Go isn’t far behind. They’re as inseparable as bow and arrow.
Bicol’s motor mouth Joey Salceda, the congressman from Albay, keeps saying Sara will run for president.
“I told Sara I will die if she will not run for president,” Salceda said. “And she answered, ‘just hold my hands.’”
Like father like daughter?
Back in 2016, Mr. Duterte kept us in suspended animation when he insisted he wasn’t running for president.
But at the last minute, he ran, substituting Martin Dino. The rest is history.
“I’m not a ‘last two minutes’ person,” Sara kept saying. “I will decide when the time comes.”
Rumor has it that Sen. Go stepped down to give way to the late dictator’s son as Sara’s running mate.
It would be a PDP-Laban tandem of Sara-Marcos Jr. as Sen. Bato dela Rosa, the original PDP-Laban standard bearer, will give way to Sara.
Sen. Bato is President Duterte’s favorite next to Sen. Go.
But Marcos Jr. has kept denying he’ll settle for the VP post.
Knowing the dictator’s clone, his being true to his word is not one of his strongest suits.
Of course, Marcos Jr. was titillated no end when Sara endorsed his presidential candidacy a while back.
But, hey, Sara is famously known for her knack of adhering to an unsullied reputation.
When the story broke out about Marcos Jr.’s grievous sin of not paying his taxes in 1982-985—a crime that carried the penalty of perpetual disqualification from holding public office and for which he was convicted with finality in 1997—Sara must have robustly regretted having publicly thrown her support behind the pretender.
But jolted by reality, she definitely knows now what prudence is telling her: Cut all ties with Marcos Jr. Pronto!
For Sara to continue clinging to the Marcos thread is like tossing herself into the company of someone drowning in the quicksand of moral turpitude.
A political perfidy like no other.
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