Awkward

By Artchil B. Fernandez

“Hell has no fury like a strongman scorned,” to paraphrase a popular idiom. This week, Du30 was on a warpath, publicly venting his anger and frustration as his design for the 2022 election went awry.

When the dust settled for the filing of certification of candidacy (COC), Du30 got a result that is not only far from satisfactory for him but one that scuttled his best laid plan. Predictably he reacted in a manner expected from a greedy narcissist – throwing a tantrum.

To recall, Du30 launched his DDS (Du30 Drama Serye) months ago in a calculated move designed to control the presidential succession process and put his rivals and the opposition off-balance. The script is exactly similar to what he employed six years ago.  In 2016, he acted coy on his presidential ambition and feigned disinterest in the highest post until forced to heed a “popular” clamor.

This time the script revolved on his daughter, Davao City mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio. She was consistently leading in pre-election presidential surveys and the suspense DDS created seemed to enhance her prospect. While tarpaulins and banners mushroomed all over the country urging her to run for president, Sara Duterte repeatedly and vehemently denied she is running for a national post. Completing her term as Davao city mayor is all that she desired, she insisted.

The “popular clamor” and denial strategy placed potential rivals within the ruling at bay and for a while, the ruse worked. But an over-extension of the suspense unraveled and sabotaged what for Du30 is a “perfect” game plan. Rivals did not wait until the final scene of DDS to make their move. Manny Pacquiao broke off from the ruling coalition and Bongbong Marcos finalized his presidential run.

Throwing damper to Du30’s plan is the intra-family feud in his family, particularly between his first and second families. Further fueling the conflict is Sara Duterte’s dislike of her father’s long-time aide Bong Go. Their pairing is Du30’s dream team.

In the end, Du30’s “perfect” plan went kaput. Bongbong Marcos not only pursued his presidential run, but he also managed to snatch the daughter from the father and made her his acolyte. Instead of a Sara-Bong tandem, Du30 got a Bong-Sara team but under a very problematic arrangement. They belong to different and opposing parties. Du30 was not only unhappy but was angry at the unexpected turn of events.

Du30 is on rampage this week and the target is the person who foiled his design. Using his usual squid tactic, Du30 dropped a bombshell through a blind item, accusing a presidential candidate of being hooked into cocaine. “There’s even a presidential candidate who is using cocaine… from a wealthy family,” he revealed in Mindoro before local and national anti-communist task force. He however gave identifiable clues. “He is a very weak leader—his character—except for the name. The father [was], but him? What has he accomplished?” Du30 asked.

In another event, Du30 named the weak leader. Asked why his ruling PDP-Laban rejected a coalition with Lakas-CMD headed by his prodigal daughter, Du30’s reply was clear and unequivocal. “No I cannot because Marcos is there, I’m not impressed by him, he’s really a weak leader. That’s true, I’m not trying to bash anyone, but he’s a spoiled child, only son, of course he can talk, he delivers articulate English, because he studied in different places, but if there’s a crisis, he’s a weak leader and he has baggage.”

The connective phrase is “weak leader.” While in his blind item Du30 did not mention any name, calling Bongbong Marcos a weak leader in another speech gave away who he was attacking. The social media was abuzz with the identity of the presidential bet who is into cocaine, a weak leader who relies on his family name and his infamous father. While public consensus points to Bongbong Marcos as the one alluded to by Du30, his camp denied it.

Sara Duterte on the other hand called on supporters to protect and defend her teammate. Protection from her father’s attack? This is an awkward situation for the daughter and her running mate. Both said they support the Du30 administration and vowed to continue its programs and safeguard its legacy.

Bongbong Marcos and Sara Duterte not only find themselves in an awkward situation but in a difficult and embarrassing one. How are they going to deal with future attacks and offensive of Du30? So far Bongbong Marcos chose to be silent and remain respectful to Du30 but for how long?

Sen. Leila de Lima’s case clearly illustrates how a piqued Du30 plays dirty and how relentless he is in hounding his prey. The campaign period is still long and Du30 has plenty of time to demolish Bongbong Marcos with blind items combined with direct attacks on his person. Should Du30 intensify his assault on Bongbong Marcos what will Sara Duterte do aside from calling people to protect and support her teammate? Will she publicly defend her partner by washing dirty family linens in public? Season 2 of DDS is bound to be explosive and exciting with the epic father-daughter clash looming.

Camp of the dictator’s son used to trumpet that the Bongbong-Sara pairing is a dream team, a partnership made in heaven. Now with Du30 openly and publicly attacking the presidential bet, the dream is becoming a nightmare and it turned out a match concocted in hell. If Du30 continues to hit Bongbong Marcos while promoting the Bong Go-Sara Duterte tandem what will his camp do? The Bongbong-Sara arrangement is becoming an awkward pairing and a big embarrassment to the axis of evil.