Marcos after Du30?

The Inquirer’s Dec. 15 issue carried a story with the headline “Duterte: I may not finish my term” (Front Page). Saying he “suffers from back pains, migraines and Buerger’s disease,” President Duterte has thus served notice that he might call it quits sooner than anyone may think.

It is unthinkable that Du30 uttered those words with Vice President Leni Robredo in mind to take his place. Is he conditioning the people’s minds about a midterm succession by Bongbong Marcos?

Consider the following: The dead, unlamented Ferdinand E. Marcos has just been allowed a “hero’s burial” by Du30 and a Supreme Court majority. With no hope in sight for any reversal of that decision, it’s a done deal: The most despised president this country ever had to endure is now a “hero.”

Bongbong’s protest against Robredo is still pending and nearing adjudication by the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) which is composed of all Supreme Court justices. The same insidious majority is still very much in control of that Court or the PET.

As shameless as their decision was in regarding the elder Marcos a great man who simply “erred” like the rest of humanity, what is another shameless decision by the same Court or PET to declare the younger Marcos vice president—and then eligible to succeed Du30 as soon as the latter steps down?!

Oye, oye… Happy days are here again for the Marcoses!  Doesn’t that make us want to hide our heads in the sand? Doesn’t that make us feel so much shame before the eyes of the world that cheered us on when we had them kicked out of the country in 1986 for being so corrupt? Are Filipinos really a bunch of losers for always electing the wrong leaders?

MELISSA SY-QUIATAN, [email protected]