Vice-President Sara Duterte sure knows how to muster public attention, and yes, support, no matter how her drama is full of fakery. I call it a plain and simple tantrum, like a spoiled child who cannot have her doll Annabelle.
She wrote to PNP Chief Rommel Marbil on the removal of PNP personnel from her security detail. From a whopping 500 bodyguards to 300 (that’s still too many), it is really unbecoming of a Vice-President.
It’s plain and simple arrogance and a disgusting sense of entitlement. She even cried “political harassment,” quickly forgetting how her father insulted and jailed political opponents off the dark days of the Duterte regime.
And then comes Bato dela Rosa with a socmed post asking for volunteers for Sara Duterte’s security detail replacement.
Which begs me the question: why is he afraid to appear in committee hearings when he himself made a despicable clown of himself in the Senate? Also, what’s taking the ICC too long to come to the country?
Sara Duterte should know better that being the second in command, she should be living a modest lifestyle and not indulge herself in a wanton display of power and influence. Is her life in danger? Is there an immediate threat to her person?
Or are all these just delusions of grandeur and self-importance?
This early, Sara believes losing a number of her bodyguards is more serious than the Chinese bullying of Filipinos at the West Philippine Sea or POGO-related crimes. And she’s lusting after the presidency.
But look, the next presidential elections a few years from now makes the rendering of justice, say by the ICC on her father on crimes allegedly committed also by top officials, more likely to yield to political pressure if not outright bribery than the likelihood of non-selective justice prevailing.
If the Duterte’s escape justice, then the blindfold worn by lady justice may be of a see-through material, similar from the mosquito net Duterte sleeps under, and the scale she carries, calibrated to be unfairly partial to the weight of gold or the total weight of several bodyguards.
Circuses in disguise as committee hearings
A sure way to instantly kill boredom is to turn on YouTube and watch the ongoing investigations/inquiries in Congress and in the Senate.
Not that I extremely abhor the characters and inanities of our legislators, but more so of the obvious “lying through their teeth” of their resource speakers-cum-mouthpieces.
The Philippines’ House of Representatives, with 316 representatives, and all with varied egos and insecurities always put up an entertaining circus as they display their personalities.
District representatives represent a particular district in the country. All provinces in PH have at least one congressional district. Many cities also have their own congressional districts. Some have two or more districts.
On the other hand, party-list congressmen represent a minority sector of society, but are national representations in essence. They are like senators in the lower house having a wider scope of constituency.
More astonishing though is the fact that if you want to see the latest SUVs out in the market today, just visit the parking lot of the House. There you will see the best vehicles money can buy.
Blaspheming a supper
Catholic-dominated Philippines has strongly reacted to what looked like a blasphemous display of members of the LGBTQ making a mockery of the Last Supper of Christ and his 12 disciples.
This happened during the opening ceremonies of the Paris 2024 Olympics for which France is known to be a Catholic nation as well.
But religion in France is diverse, which could be attributed to France’s adherence to secularism, freedom of religion, and freedom of thought, as guaranteed by their 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
The French Republic is based on the principle of ‘laicite’ or ‘freedom of conscience,’ established by the 1800s Jules Ferry laws and the 1905 French law on the separation of the Churches and the State.
The major religions practiced in France include Christianity which comprises some 50% of its population with denominations that include Catholicism, Protestantism, Eastern Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, and Sikhism.
Around 40% of its population are non-religious, which probably explains the sheer ignorance of Biblical historical events.
And yes, the Philippines being predominantly Roman Catholic, would naturally react with such a display of disrespect to what they consider as holy men of the Bible and of Christ.
Still, life goes on in the Philippines, although ruled by corruption and embedded in the culture of its people. And the French reaction: “C’est la vie!”
-o0o-
Random Memorandum: A presidential veto is a constitutional rule that enables a president to refuse assent to a bill that has been passed by the legislature, and thereby to stop the bill from becoming a law. The grounds on which the veto power may be exercised and the difficulty of overturning the veto vary between jurisdictions.
-o0o
Factoid: King Solomon of Israel had a harem of 700 wives and 300 concubines. That’s 700 mothers-in-law and 300 more waiting in line, and a perpetual headache.
(Leslie Bocobo is a former Special Assistant to the Secretary at the Office of the Press Secretary, Malacañang, and a former Public Affairs Director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources)
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