Now that the election season is heating up, many of us might have forgotten the events in our recent past, the heady days before the close of the filing of candidacies and substitution of candidates last Nov. 15, 2021. It is time to review them.
The President had announced earlier he would be running for the position of vice president to ensure “continuity” of his policies, but he later withdrew this plan. Everyone was surprised when Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa filed his candidacy for president just 30 minutes before the deadline last Oct. 8. Dela Rosa later on disclosed that he himself was surprised when he was told he was going to be the standard-bearer of the President’s party, PDP-Laban (Cusi wing).
According to PDP-Laban party officials, it was a party decision to choose Dela Rosa, known to be one of the main architects of Operation “Tokhang,” Mr. Duterte’s controversial anti-drug war. Earlier, Mr. Duterte’s closest ally in the Senate, Sen. Bong Go, filed his candidacy too but for the position of vice president, not president as everyone expected.
Some had hoped the presidential daughter, Mayor Sara of Davao City, would file her candidacy as president. To everyone’s surprise, Sara chose to file for re-election as mayor.
But all these again changed within the week when the official substitution of candidates and positions was allowed.
Sara Duterte “suddenly” changed her mind and substituted a candidate for vice president of the party she has transferred to, former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s Lakas–CMD.
Then, Dela Rosa withdrew his candidacy, and Go substituted for him as the standard-bearer of the ruling party. But just before Christmas, Go suddenly decided to withdraw from the presidential race, in a teary-eyed speech saying that he cannot do “it,” that is, running for the highest position of the country.
On Nov. 25, 2021, four political families decided to form a “grand coalition of national and regional parties” that will support the tandem of former senator Bongbong Marcos (presidential aspirant) and Sara Duterte (vice-presidential aspirant). Dubbed as the UniTeam alliance, the group pooled the resources of four political parties: Marcos’ Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP); Sara Duterte’s Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP, a regional party); Arroyo’s Lakas-CMD; and former president Joseph Estrada’s Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino.
With the UniTeam Alliance, the group intends to ensure victory of the Marcos Jr.-Duterte tandem in the May 2022 elections.
Interestingly, the incorporators of this grand alliance have something in common: two of the grand coalition’s stalwarts have been accused of plunder (Estrada and Arroyo). Estrada was ousted and did not finish his term due to his plunder case. Arroyo was placed under hospital arrest after having been found guilty of plunder but was later acquitted. Marcos Jr. has been the subject of disqualification protests over tax evasion and other anomalies. Sara Duterte has been known to follow in her father’s footsteps as a “strongman” type of leader. Both are known to have used physical violence (Mr. Duterte has publicly admitted to having caused the death of not only one person) and the daughter has been dubbed “the Davao punch” for punching a court sheriff.
The UniTeam is a grand coalition of politicians who have displayed their greed for power and money and for flaunting the strongman type of leadership. Their standard-bearer, Marcos Jr. and his running mate, Sara Duterte, believe that if voters elect them on May 9, 2022, the Philippines will “rise again” as a country.
I agree. We will rise again as one of the dirtiest countries in the world, not only dirt in our waters, land, and air, but as one of the most corrupt. The alliance of these four political families is indeed grand, for they don’t only do a whiff of corruption—knowing their past political histories, when given a chance, they will do it on a grand scale.
Their alliance is a grand MADUME (Macapagal-Arroyo-Duterte-Marcos-Erap), dirty one.