By Robert B. Roque, Jr.
“Who can stand before jealousy?” it says in Proverbs. “Wrath can be cruel and anger overwhelming. Indeed, they may sweep all before them to instant destruction, like a tsunami hitting the coastlands.”
Wow! Biblical truth and its portrayal of the human heart even in modern times is astonishing. It seems to me, we have very recent proof of how red with rage one can be. Isn’t that right, VP Sara?
Last Friday, after a rare show of cordiality between President Bongbong Marcos and former VP Leni Robredo made headlines, our “National Inday” threw a fit in a press conference — raging, no less, for nearly two hours.
The contrast between Thursday’s dignified encounter in Sorsogon between Leni and BBM and VP Sara’s public outburst the next day could not be more striking. Robredo and Marcos, notwithstanding their bitter political rivalry, were able to manage a moment of civility — a gesture that reflected maturity and a shared understanding of political duty.
For VP Sara, though, she managed to throw the kitchen sink while tossing self-respect out the window in a very cringy episode of ranting about supposed leadership failures as if BBM had dumped her on prom night.
Pardon me for making the connection, but I can’t help but wonder — was it the brief handshake or the warmth of the smiles exchanged between the former rivals that really got under Inday’s skin?
Perhaps the answer lies in VP Sara’s confession that she felt “used” by the Marcos camp to secure the presidency in 2022 — something that does ring with more truth than sour grapes. Bongbong would have not won Visayas and Mindanao on his own.
But that’s what you get when your disposition was like that of Inday Sara two years ago when her filing for candidacy was purely about winning and not about any high-minded ideals.
So now, when she speaks of her dissatisfaction with the Marcos administration, referring to it as the country’s “road to hell” — she’s largely to blame for it, too. In her reckless tirade, she even blurted out digging up the grave of Marcos’s father and throwing the remains into the West Philippine Sea.
Here is where it got really ugly. Monumentally low for any Filipino or human being.
Senate President Chiz Escudero is right to cut through this senseless noise with a dignified rebuke, reminding the VP that what she had said was “unbecoming” of the second-highest leader of the nation.
No matter the frustration, she was expected to uphold a standard of decorum. She had diminished her office and her stature to that of a “Karen” needing her dirty mouth washed.
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