Vice President Sara Duterte and her younger brother, Acting Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte of Davao City, have managed to evade confrontations of their making.

The Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that the verified impeachment complaint transmitted by the House of Representatives to the Senate in February is unconstitutional, providing the Vice President a reprieve from a trial that, per survey results, a majority of Filipinos want to see happen. 

“The decision, while legal in form, resonates as a spiritual wound to our people—especially the poor…” the Franciscan Province of San Pedro Bautista-Philippines said in a statement.

As for Baste Duterte, he has flown to Singapore, physically removing himself from the boxing challenge he earlier posed to Gen. Nicolas Torre III, which the Philippine National Police chief accepted and forthwith scheduled as a “charity match.”

Which makes for bad optics for Baste Duterte, in his late 30s and scion of the siga ex-prez now incarcerated in The Hague and awaiting trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the alleged crime against humanity of murder, and in whose stead he is serving as mayor of the family bailiwick. Long at odds with Torre, he had gotten the message across that he could kick the PNP chief’s ass (pardon our French). More than 4,000 people were said to have bought tickets to the Sunday match at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum that Torre, in his early 50s, won by default, with the spectators loudly joining the countdown for the challenger to show up.

ANC reported that the event, which featured undercards, had raised more than ₱20 million in ticket sales and donations in cash and in kind. Even the champ Manny Pacquiao is said to have thrown in a boxing belt for auction, suggesting that he approved of the bout no matter how impromptu or unbecoming of high government officials. Torre had intended the event as fundraising—with the proceeds to be turned over to the relevant agencies—for those whose lives and livelihoods were upended by the continuing stormy weather. The TV report showed residents of Baseco in Tondo as immediate beneficiaries. 

As it turned out, the nonmatch served to resurrect an unpleasant memory: Baste Duterte’s dad welshing on a challenge to Antonio Carpio in May 2021 to a debate on the issue of the Philippines’ sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea. Carpio had quickly accepted, time and place “at the President’s convenience.” But the then prez, a staunch friend and ally of the hegemon intruding into Philippine waters, backed down, supposedly on advice not to engage the retired senior associate justice of the Supreme Court. The details are on record. 

Beyond the “bugbugan” that failed to materialize is the aborted impeachment trial. In the verified impeachment complaint voided by the Supreme Court (as well as in the three other complaints filed in December that were not referred to the House committee on justice), the Vice President is charged with, among others, betrayal of public trust and misuse of more than ₱600 million in confidential funds. 

Earlier she had claimed that those opposed to confidential funds are necessarily opposed to peace and ultimately enemies of the people. She had resisted invitations by investigating congressional committees to explain the questionable disbursements, and resorted to sending members of her staff to the hearings 

Yet on various occasions she let it be known that she welcomed her trial by the Senate impeachment court. She is on record as expressing not only agreement with those Filipinos who want her tried on the charges, who want her to rebut whatever evidence is presented against her and thereby prove her innocence, but also eagerness to testify at the long-delayed procedure. In fact she wanted a “bloodbath,” she had announced, in effect saying that the prosecution would  be no match to the violent clarity of her defense. (The attentive observer may recall her siga dad expressing mock impatience at the ICC’s supposed slowness to come and get him for his “war on drugs” that killed at least 6,000. He said he’d go to the ICC himself.) 

At the same time, as though to confuse the enemy, her team had been vigorously questioning the impeachment complaint in the high court and seeking a stop to her trial. Before the 19th Congress ended, her allies in the Senate flexed their numbers vis-à-vis their “constitutional duty” and voted to remand the complaint to the House.

The Supreme Court’s ruling of unconstitutionality on the impeachment complaint has elicited a “growing sense of disillusionment with institutions meant to uphold justice and truth,” the Franciscans said. “Once again, the hope for transparent governance is met with legal barriers that appear insurmountable.”

Is there hope still? Retired chief justice Artemio Panganiban and other retired justices of the high court have respectfully presented differences in opinion. And the House has served notice that it would seek the tribunal’s reconsideration based on the “doctrine of operative facts.”

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. delivers his fourth State of the Nation Address today in a less than pretty setting, with his spare, the Vice President, holed up in The Hague and firing buckshots in his direction.

Wide swaths of Luzon and the Visayas are prostrate under the onslaught of the monsoon and a succession of tropical storms, with a growing number of dead and missing. The costs of the damage are unimaginable. Metro Manila appears already devastated by widespread flooding even as the rainy season is just revving up. 

Rain or not, Bayan and other activist groups have planned mass actions to protest hunger and unemployment, rising inflation and costs of living, low wages, absence of accountability among high officials… These are perennial issues that flood our lives, and Mr. Marcos’ recent meeting with US President Donald Trump hardly promises a surcease of misery for the poor.

Against this backdrop, the Inquirer report on Sen. Panfilo Lacson’s estimate of ₱1 trillion in flood control funds since 2011 likely ending up “in some people’s pockets” demonstrates the abject failure of transparency in governance. 

The two chambers of Congress have firmed up their positioning. How did Alitaptap Anim formulate it? “When the truth is blocked in the halls of power, the streets will carry it forward.”