By Robert B. Roque Jr.
“Marami na akong kaaway at hindi ko kailangan ng kaaway. Kailangan ko kaibigan (I already have many enemies and I don’t need enemies. I need friends).”
That was President Bongbong Marcos in an interview early this week — mellow, conciliatory, and almost whimpering like a lost boy. If there’s any proof that we now have a sitting duck in Malacañang, this was it.
First of all, Marcos shouldn’t act surprised if he finds himself surrounded by enemies, not just critics. Long before he sat as president, he knew — he had to know — that his family name, built on his father’s long and brutal strongman rule, came with ready-made political enemies.
No revelation there — just one darned heavy baggage attached to his name.
Then, with a midterm disaster for half of his Senate slate and only one among the survivors standing by him in such an anti-climactic “victory party,” I’m not surprised that this Chief Executive is desperate to patch things up with former allies turned adversaries.
For someone who in 2022 campaigned on “unity” with his now Vice President, he must ask himself why his coalition dance partner is practically holding a gun to his head and ready to fire!
Well, he knows the answer to that: Bongbong ran strategically, fusing forces with the Dutertes. That gamble gave him the presidency with Sara Duterte supposedly his No. 1 ally.
But both of them didn’t just fail in making their UniTeam work. She and her lackeys betrayed it or maybe Bongbong’s alter-egos in the Palace actually did. There’s a myth going around, you know: that the Philippines now has three presidents — the elected one, the one he married, and his cousin.
Perhaps, Marcos is really a nice guy; but one of them certainly must be behind the VP’s foul-mouthed father (Rodrigo Duterte) being arrested and hauled off to The Hague. And one of them seemingly set Sara up for impeachment and obviously for the right reasons.
But with two powerful figures shadowing the President, how could his latest call for friendly cooperation ever be taken seriously?
What’s more is that how do you reconcile with your so-called allies when your own Comelec chief — who also happened to be your former election lawyer — is now leading the disqualification of Duterte-allied partylists who were overwhelmingly voted in by the public?
So when Marcos says, “Let’s get rid of bickering,” maybe he should start by cleaning up his own house first.
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SHORT BURSTS. For comments or reactions, email firingline@ymail.com or tweet @Side_View via X app (formerly Twitter). Read current and past issues of this column at http://www.thephilbiznews.com
