This week, 2024 comes to a close — unmistakably the year of hard-nosed political news in the Philippines with top incumbent and former officials at each other’s throats the whole year round.
News organizations in all platforms struggled to keep up with developments in the political front as they came in fast and furious. Even the apolitical tuned in on the controversies that became news.
In January of 2024, former president Rodrigo Duterte raised eyebrows when he suddenly launched a movement which he called “Hakbang ng Maisug” (Move of the Brave). Duterte led a huge rally in his hometown Davao City that was clearly aimed to weaken, if not oust, President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.
Duterte accused Marcos of plotting to perpetrate himself and his family members in power by changing the Constitution. The former president said the Marcos family, including the President’s cousin House Speaker Martin Romualdez, were power-hungry politicians. During the same inaugural rally of the Maisug, Duterte hinted that Marcos was into substance abuse.
The Maisug launch was also attended by the former president’s two sons, Mayor Sebastian Duterte and Rep. Paolo Duterte, who minced no words as they spoke on stage against the Marcos administration. A handful of Duterte’s political allies, mostly harboring senatorial ambitions, also spoke during the rally.
The former president’s daughter, Vice-president Sara Duterte, who stands to benefit from a Marcos ouster, also showed-up at the rally site with the president’s sister, Sen. Imee Marcos. The vice-president and the senator, however, opted not to speak before the crowd.
Interestingly, Malacañang chose to generally ignore the Maisug launching rally.
In the succeeding months until September, Duterte’s Maisug movement held rallies in Tagum City, Davao del Norte; Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental; Tacloban City, Leyte; Pampanga; Manila City; Cagayan de Oro City; and Cebu City.
In all the Maisug rallies around the country, the message was rather clear and simple — President Marcos, who was called bangag (drug-crazed) by speakers of the movement, had to step down.
In the rally in Tagum City, Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez, a former House speaker, went to the extent of asking the military to withdraw their support from President Marcos. The military brass rejected the call and Alvarez was reprimanded by his colleagues in Congress.
In between the series of Maisug mass movements on July 19, the Vice-president eventually resigned from the Marcos Cabinet where she held two portfolios — Education secretary and vice-chairperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC). She did not specify the reason for her resignation but political observers noted that it was a step to becoming a full-fledged opposition figure.
In the succeeding month, the allies of the President in the House of Representatives appeared resolved to make their counter-moves against the Dutertes.
On August 12, the House formed an unprecedented Quad Committee that would investigate extra-judicial killings, conduct of drug war, the consequences of the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) and human rights violation under the Duterte presidency from 2016 to 2022.
And then on August 28, Vice-president Duterte-Carpio got her first taste of being treated as an opposition figure in the House budget hearings. Her spending was scrutinized and this led to a broader investigation by House Blue Ribbon Committee against her.
The August to December hearings by the House Quad Com culminated in a recommendation to file crimes against humanity charges against former president Duterte, his allies senators Christopher Lawrence Go and Ronald Dela Rosa, and other police officials in connection with the alleged extra-judicial killings during the previous administration’s drug war.
The House Blue Ribbon hearings, on the other hand, resulted in at least three impeachment complaints against Duterte-Carpio. The charges are anomalous disbursements of confidential funds to her office and the Department of Education during her tenure as secretary, culpable violation of the Constitution, betrayal of public trust, plunder and malversation, bribery, graft and corruption.
All told, 2024 was the year of top level political in-fighting. Year 2025 may just see the continuation.
