By Beting Laygo Dolor, Contributing Editor
Their soft denials notwithstanding, the rift between the Marcos and Duterte camps is seen to worsen in the months and years ahead.
The roots of the impending political divorce can be traced to the rumored plan of Vice -president Sara Duterte-Carpio and Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez to both run for president in 2028.
While Romualdez said at the start of this week that “it’s still a Uniteam,” recent events indicated that all was not well with the two camps and their supermajority at the House of Representatives.
This, after former president Rodrigo Duterte said in a TV interview last month that he considered the lower chamber of the country’s bicameral Congress of not only being corrupt but being “the most rotten institution” in the country.
The former chief executive took issue with the House after it had voted to remove the PHP650 million in confidential and intelligence funds from his daughter, VP and concurrent Education secretary Duterte-Carpio.
The Speaker, first cousin of President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr, had earlier taken steps to cut the influence of the Dutertes in the House by twice demoting their principal ally, former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
Arroyo was initially demoted from her post as Senior Deputy Speaker to simply Deputy Speaker months ago. Then last month, she was further demoted to simply member of the House, losing the title of Deputy Speaker.
Her second demotion was seen as the result of her not signing a House resolution expressing full support to the leadership of Romualdez, following rumors of a planned coup that would install Arroyo as Speaker, a post she briefly held last year.
Arroyo said she failed to sign the resolution because she was out of the country at the time it was passed but this was not acceptable to most congressmen in the majority who pointed out that she could have affixed her signature virtually or allowed any of her staff to sign in her behalf.
Arroyo insisted that all was well with the marriage of convenience between the Marcos and Duterte camps that she is credited for having brokered.
As for the confidential and intelligence funds that VP Duterte-Carpio had earlier insisted was necessary to perform her job, she recently stated that not only could she live without it but was withdrawing her request following public backlash on how she had spent PHP125 million in her allotment this year in a span of 18 days.
It was not clear if Romualdez was being sarcastic but the Speaker said the withdrawal was “the right decision” by the VP, then adding: “We hail VP Sara’s decision.”
Complicating the situation is the President’s sister, Sen. Imee Marcos, who indicated that she would “never” turn her back on the Dutertes, as the former president was the very first to support her brother’s bid to run for president last year.
That there was bad blood between the Speaker and the Vice-president could be gleaned from Duterte-Carpio’s slight when she referred to unnamed House leaders as “tambaloslos,” a mythical beast from the Visayas known for possessing a large mouth and a huge penis.
Former senator Antonio Trillanes lll even believes that the police and the military are being drawn into the battle with last week’s talk of a possible coup, coming from no less than Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff General Romeo Brawner Jr.
Brawner had stated that “some” retired officers of the AFP were involved in destabilization “efforts” but there was no actual “plot” to remove the President.
Trillanes, meanwhile, said in a TV interview that the Dutertes and Arroyo were hellbent on returning to power “by any means.”
He added that the coup plans are currently in the agitation phase and would move forward in the near term.
