By Robert B. Roque Jr.
There is nothing novel about enforcing order in the streets. What is new?
Senator Robin Padilla is one of the names being floated in discussions for the vice presidency in 2028, largely on account of his winnability. Well, if helping lead this country is all about popularity, then we will never run out of celebrities running for office till kingdom come.
And what was his response to the talk?
He said that if former president Rodrigo Duterte instructs him to run for vice president, he would do so.
He did not say that if Duterte told him to jump off a bridge, he would obey — but judging by that line of thinking, one gets the sense that if he were told to bark like a dog, he probably would.
If this is the mentality of a possible future vice president — one whose political ambition depends entirely on the instruction of an ex-president many now call a berdugo — then what kind of leadership can the nation expect?
Unfortunately, Padilla’s logic mirrors that of many Duterte Diehard Supporters, or DDS: if Duterte says Padilla should run, then Padilla should run; if Duterte says vote for him, then they will vote for him.
What is less certain is whether this is truly what pro-Duterte Filipinos want for the country. Yet because of blind faith in a leader whose time is up — and whose political future appears increasingly bleak — they may still rally behind candidates out of loyalty rather than discernment.
The election is still far off, but perhaps now is the time for voters, especially the die-hards, to ask themselves whether their loyalty is to a political figure or to the nation itself.
Because the reality is this: Rodrigo Duterte is not returning to the presidency. His remaining power lies only in endorsing those around him, and perhaps not because they are the most capable, but because they are the most loyal.
And that is where the danger begins.
Public office is not a favor to be granted by political patronage, nor is national leadership something to be handed down as an act of obedience. To seek the vice presidency not out of conviction, competence, or vision, but simply because a former president said so, is to reduce the office into a reward for loyalty.
That is not leadership.
That is submission dressed up as public service — and a country that accepts that kind of reasoning risks electing not leaders, but extensions of another man’s will.
To see how disastrously this kind of politics can go, one need only look back at 2022.
I have heard even from DDS friends that Rodrigo Duterte himself did not believe Sara Duterte was ready for the presidency and had preferred Sen. Bong Go as his successor. To many of them, it made perfect sense. Bong Go had national recall through the Malasakit Centers; he enjoyed the public trust carried over from Duterte’s popularity, and after years as Duterte’s closest aide, he seemed the most natural extension of the former president’s leadership.
In other words, he was viewed as the safest political heir.
But Sara Duterte had other plans. Rather than spend six years as vice president under her father’s chosen successor, she chose to align herself with Ferdinand Marcos Jr., handing the Marcoses a path back to Malacañang in exchange for her own ascent.
And we all know where that alliance stands now.
That is precisely the danger in entertaining candidacies built merely on loyalty to a political patron. When the nation chooses leaders based on allegiance, familiarity, or borrowed popularity rather than competence and vision, public office becomes part of a power arrangement rather than an instrument of national progress.
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Like a game of chess, Zaldy Co — the alleged “King” of the flood control scam — has finally been cornered. Arrested in the Czech Republic, his endgame has come. Czechmate!
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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 https://www.thephilbiznews.com