An unlikely partnership (2)

Not to mention that Sara Duterte has taken Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s lead when it comes to the campaign decision to shun debates. Marcos Jr. has refused attendance for a multitude of rotating reasons: prior commitments; a network and its journalist being “biased” against him; the questions being repetitive. Meanwhile, analysts have suspected that Marcos Jr.’s team is wary of compromising his comfortable lead and of putting his principles, actions, and platforms up for scrutiny. Regardless of the reason, Duterte has followed suit. The refusal to attend debates does not sit well with Leni Robredo, who said in February that such actions signify a lack of respect for the Filipino voter.

One also wonders how Leni-Sara proponents can call the tandem a symbol of “genuine unity” when Robredo has admitted her aim of preventing a Marcos return to power. Duterte’s alignment with the son of the dictator is emblematic of her own willingness to not hold Marcos Jr. accountable, not just for the estate tax issue but for his continued attempt to whitewash the country’s history under martial law. The son himself may not be a dictator, but even the harshest of Marcos Jr.’s critics would be more accepting of a Marcos presidency if he could acknowledge the wrongs of the past and vow that they will not be repeated under his term. Sadly, no such admission is in the offing. One recalls how, in 2017, Duterte spoke of how her father once urged her and brother Paolo to “never forget” the night of Feb. 25, 1986. Given her and her father’s recent history and alignment with the Marcoses, one may suppose that perhaps there was some convenient forgetting.

The biggest stumbling block of all perhaps to a true “Leni-Sara” unity — even bigger than Duterte’s alignment with Marcos — is the culture of impunity that Robredo’s camp appears to be at pains to dismantle, of which Duterte has been both proponent and beneficiary. One may recall that as Davao City mayor, Duterte was once reprimanded for punching a court sheriff. The incident itself may be less important than what happened afterward: while she did apologize for the incident nearly a year later, her critics point at how Duterte’s attitude after the incident reflects a refusal to be held accountable, even irritability once she was called out about the incident on a radio interview.

Moreover, Duterte has had no comment on the heavy criticism leveled at her father’s administration for the death toll on the supposed war against drugs — criticisms that Robredo already began airing in 2016. Earlier this year Duterte went so far as to call the campaign effective, with no comment on the high estimates for its death toll and no comment on the allegations of human rights abuses that have dogged this administration. Perhaps it would have been helpful to hear Duterte’s thoughts on this during a forum: other vice presidential candidates had no such difficulty in calling out the president. This month, four vice presidential bets agreed in a forum that victims of supposed abuses of the military and police should be given reparation, with Rizalito David commenting that the first person who should be held accountable for the “bloody” drug war should be the president. While one is hopeful that Sara Duterte sincerely believes her own words that fair or “pantay-pantay” law enforcement is necessary, an inability to comment with clarity and openness on the key criticism against her father’s leadership does not inspire much hope.

With the election a mere two weeks away, Duterte still leads the poll among vice presidential bets and Robredo continues to gain momentum, hoping to overtake frontrunner Marcos Jr. While a Leni-Sara win appears possible, it will certainly not be a partnership that will come easily for both parties, who stand on opposing ends of a political and moral spectrum.

[email protected]