After losing the presidential elections in 2022, world boxing icon Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao wants a Senate comeback next year. His wife Jinkee and his brother Alberto or “Bobby” are joining the party-list race. 

Jinkee is the second nominee of a new party-list group, Maharlikang Pilipino sa Bagong Lipunan. Bobby is No. 2 nominee of 1-PACMAN, which currently has one seat in the House.

As Sen. Grace Poe is completing her second term next year, her son, Brian Poe Llamanzares, tries his hand at politics as the first nominee of FPJ Panday Bayanihan party-list group. FPJ are the initials of his grandfather, the late movie king Fernando Poe Jr., who lost the presidential vote in 2004 amid allegations of electoral fraud.

FPJ’s other nominees include Mark Patron, who belongs to a political family in Batangas, and Hiyas Dolor, wife of Oriental Mindoro Gov. Humerlito “Bonz” Dolor. 

New and old political dynasties have swarmed again the party-list elections.

Research by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) shows that 36 of the 54 (66%) party-list groups in the current 19th Congress have at least one nominee belonging to a political family.

All of these groups, except for two, are running again for seats next year. AAMBIS-OWA Rep. Lex Anthony Collada is now a nominee of a new group, Ang Kasanga. Ang Marino did not field nominees. 

In the May 2025 elections, at least 78 out of the 156 party-list organizations certified by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) belong to political families.

Apart from Jinkee Pacquiao’s Maharlikang Pilipino sa Bagong Lipunan and Llamanzares’s FPJ Panday Bayanihan, new groups linked to senators include the Balikatan of Filipino Families or BFF. Its top nominee is Ma. Presentacion “Precy” Vitug-Ejercito, wife of Sen. Jinggoy Estrada. 

From Makabayan to Tulfos 

The party-list elections promote proportional representation of national, regional, and sectoral parties in the House. Under Republic Act No. 7941 or the Party List System Act, party-list representatives are to constitute 20% of the total House members. 

Groups usually need more or less 300,000 votes nationwide to safely secure at least one seat. 

In the beginning, progressive groups dominated seats in the House  based on an initial Supreme Court interpretation that party-list groups need to represent marginalized groups. 

“It began with the traditional groups, marginalized or underrepresented but what we’ve seen through the years [is that] it has been dominated by political families,” said Rona Ann Caritos, executive director of Legal Networks for Truthful Elections (Lente). 

At the height of its electoral success, the Makabayan progressive bloc had up to eight seats in the House. Bayan Muna topped the 2001 and 2004 party-list elections, getting the maximum of three seats. Anakpawis, Gabriela, Kabataan, and ACT Teachers had one or two seats each. 

In 2013, the Supreme Court reversed itself and ruled that party-list groups “do not need to organize along sectoral lines and do not need to represent any marginalized and underrepresented sector.” It cited the intent of RA No. 7941 to make the party-list race a system of proportional representation open to various groups and parties. 

Political families gradually packed the party-list elections. 

In recent years, the former Duterte administration’s campaign to disqualify progressive groups from participating in elections also hurt Makabayan’s electoral chances. The bloc was reduced to three seats after the 2022 elections. Gabriela, Act Teachers, and Kabataan have one seat each. Bayan Muna failed to get one seat. 

The Anti-Crime and Terrorism Community Involvement and Support or ACT-CIS of the Tulfo political clan dominated the 2022 elections with over 2 million votes. It was the only group to secure the maximum three seats.

ACT-CIS is represented by popular broadcaster and former Social Welfare Secretary Erwin Tulfo; Jocelyn Tulfo, wife of Sen. Raffy Tulfo; and Edvic Yap, brother of Benguet Rep. Eric Yap and Quezon City 4th District Councilor Egay Yap. In next year’s elections, Yap, Jocelyn Tulfo, and Jeffrey Soriano are the top nominees of ACT-CIS. 

Two other Tulfos are running next year under a new group, Turismo Isulong Mo, with former tourism secretary Wanda Tulfo-Teo and her son Robert Wren Tulfo-Teo as nominees. 

Quezon City Rep. Ralph Tulfo Jr., son of Raffy and Jocelyn, will seek reelection. Erwin and another brother, Ben, are running for senator. 

If they all win, there will be three Tulfos in the Senate and four Tulfos in the House.  

Regional groups  

Political analysts note the proliferation of regional party-list groups that are led by politicians or members of political dynasties.

Tingog (Waray word for “voice’) of Western Visayas won two seats in the House in 2022. It is represented by Rep. Yedda Marie Romualdez, wife of Speaker Martin Romualdez. Jude Acidre is the group’s other representative.  

Next year, Tingog’s top nominee is Andrew Julian Romualdez, son of the Speaker, while Yedda is the sixth nominee. The Speaker himself is a reelectionist. 

Also from the Visayas, Abag-Promdi is represented by Mariano Mimo Osmeña, son of the late Cebu Gov. Lito Osmeña. The group advocates for the devolution of more authority and autonomy to local government.  

Barkadahan Para Sa Bansa is fielding a member of the Durano political clan, also of Cebu province. Danao City Mayor Thomas Durano is the nephew of former Danao Mayor Ramon Durano Jr. 

There are many regional groups from northern Luzon. Ako Ilocano Ako is represented by Rep. Richelle Singson, daughter of former Ilocos Sur governor and senatorial candidate Luis “Chavit” Singson, who leads one of the country’s biggest political dynasties. 

Abono is represented by Rep. Robert Estrella, brother of former agrarian reform secretary Conrado Estrella III. He remains the group’s  first nominee in next year’s elections. He is the son of former Pangasinan Rep. Conrad Estrella Jr. and grandson of former Pangasinan Gov. Conrado Estrella Sr. 

Abante Pangasinan Ilokano (API) will field former Pangasinan Gov. Amado Espino Jr. and his brother former Bautista town mayor Amadeo T. Espino as nominees. 

From Mindanao, Kusug Tausug was represented for three terms or a total of nine years by Rep. Shernee Tan, youngest daughter of Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Tan. Next year, she will try to swap positions with Maimbung town vice mayor Aiman Tan, the group’s top nominee.

Crowded elections

Electoral reform advocates have pushed for an antidynasty prohibition in the party-list elections. Caritos said this will “temper the greed or the appetite of our political families, our traditional politicians to enter the party-list system.” 

There’s also a need for institutional reforms and for political parties to mature, said former Comelec commissioner Luie Guia. “The role of political parties is to aggregate agendas for politics. However, there is no incentive mechanism in our political culture to establish that kind of institution to strengthen our political parties,” Guia said. 

Outside of political dynasties, the party-list elections attract nominees from many spectrums.  

1-Rider, which has no link to politicians, placed second in the 2022 elections with over 1 million votes and gained two seats. It is represented by Bonifacio Bosita, a retired policeman-turned-social-media content creator, who advocates for road safety. He has over 1 million followers on social media. 

After three years in the House, Bosita will seek a Senate seat next year. Rep. Ramon Gutierrez, the group’s other representative, is now the group’s top nominee. 

The son of the late Sen. Juan Flavier, Jonathan Flavier, is the top nominee of Health Alliance PH. Former health undersecretary Enrique “Eric” Tayag is the second nominee. 

The son of convicted pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles is also running for a party-list seat. James Christopher Napoles is the first nominee of Kaunlad Pinoy, which claims to represent small business owners and informal enterprises. 

Critics of progressive groups in the House are joining the party-list race, too.  

The Mindanao Indigenous Peoples Conference for Peace and Development has listed Marlon Bosantog, Lorraine Marie Badoy-Partosa and Jeffrey Celiz as its top three nominees. Bosantog and Badoy-Partosa are former spokespersons of the government’s anti-insurgency body, National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Council (NTF-ELCAC). Celiz is a confessed former rebel who had led attacks against the Makabayan bloc in the House.

Pushback 

It’s a crowded election. 

Next year, the Liberal Party, one of the country’s oldest political parties, is fielding candidates for the first time. Mamamayang Liberal is fielding former Sen. Leila De Lima, former Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat and Quezon Rep. Erin Tañada as nominees. 

The group’s agenda? To amend Republic Act No. 7941 to limit again the party-list elections to marginalized sectors. 

It shows growing pragmatism among reformist politicians, according to political observers. 

Human rights lawyer Jose Manuel “Chel” Diokno has given up plans for a senatorial bid and is instead running as the top nominee of Akbayan, a progressive group that also suffered from government attacks in recent years.  

“Even Aksyon Demokratiko [political party] has Aksyon Dapat with former Secretary and Representative Hernani Braganza as No. 1 candidate. You have Mamamayang Liberal and then you have other parties that are within the progressive reformist sphere,” said Julio Teehankee, a political analyst and political science and international studies professor of De La Salle University. 

It’s a tactical move and a welcome pushback, he said. “In the same way that the celebrities [and] dynasties have appropriated the party list, the more reformist and progressive blocs are now reclaiming the party-list elections.” —With research from Guinevere Latoza

Read more: Proposals to delay BARMM polls also seek to change makeup of interim gov’t

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(Last of two parts)

The Sanggunian Kabataan (SK) law and Bangsamoro Electoral Code define and prohibit political dynasties. However, these laws only cover the SK and Bangsamoro parliamentary elections.

In national and local elections, clans continue to consolidate political and economic power.

Based on the electoral plans for May 2025 of district representatives belonging to political dynasties, here are five ways they are able to stay in power.

1.  Max out term limits

The Constitution allows politicians to hold local office for three consecutive three-year terms or a total of nine uninterrupted years.

In the current 19th Congress, 142 district representatives are reelectionists belonging to political dynasties , PCIJ’s count shows. They represent more than half of the 253 district seats.

The entire province of Ilocos Norte is dominated by reelectionist dynasts, with presidential son Ferdinand “Sandro” Marcos (first district) running for a second term and his uncle Angelo Marcos Barba (second district) fighting for a third term.

Since the Marcoses returned to the Philippines in 1991, they have uninterruptedly reigned over Ilocos Norte’s second district. But the first district was only recently captured by the clan in the 2022 elections, when Sandro Marcos beat Ria Fariñas, a member of a rival political family.

In Leyte, each of its five congressional districts is held by a different political dynasty member: Speaker and presidential cousin Ferdinand Martin Romualdez (first district), Lolita Javier (second district), Anna Victoria Veloso-Tuazon (third district), Richard Gomez (fourth district) and Carl Nicolas Cari (fifth district). They all plan to keep their posts. 

Other provinces where all districts are represented by reelectionist dynasts include Misamis Occidental and Misamis Oriental in the Visayas, and Cotabato, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur in Mindanao.

Many elected members of political dynasties maximize the three terms.

It is easy for them to get reelected because of the “incumbency advantage,” said political science professor Julio Teehankee.

“If you’re elected, you have all the resources of the state. And if you’re elected as a member of the House of Representatives, you have a pork barrel and all sorts of projects to show to your constituencies,” he said.

“The longer you stay in power, the more likely you will accumulate it … the more likely you will pass it on to your relatives,” Teehankee said.

Legal Network for Truthful Elections (Lente) Executive Director Rona Ann Caritos said many incumbent officials are guilty of abusing state resources to aid their campaigns.

Lente defines abuse of state resources (ASR) as “the misuse of government resources—whether material, human, coercive, regulatory, budgetary, media-related, or legislative—for electoral advantage.”

These commonly take the forms of social welfare programs and the use of government transportation, she said.

Caritos said Comelec can do its part by monitoring how state resources are reduced during election campaign seasons. “We’ve managed to convince Comelec to take on monitoring ASR hopefully in the 2025 elections… That’s another step also of somehow tempering the political dynasties,” she told PCIJ.

2. Seek higher positions, swap with relatives

What happens when their terms run out? There are those who seek higher office, like many of the incumbent senators who started their careers in the House of Representatives.

Others do not wait.

Las Piñas City Rep. Camille Villar is seeking a Senate seat after two terms in the House of Representatives. She is swapping places with her mother, Sen. Cynthia Villar, who is sliding back to run for a seat in the House of Representatives.

It is Sen. Villar who is reaching her term limit in the Senate next year. She dropped initial plans of running for mayor of Las Piñas.

It’s the same for Lanao Del Norte Rep. Mohamad Khalid Dimaporo, who will run for governor in 2025. He is swapping positions with his mother, Gov. Imelda Dimaporo, whose third term will end next year.

PCIJ research shows that 67 outgoing district representatives have opted to seek higher positions or switch positions with family members. Nearly half of them are term-limited.

In Masbate, a father and mother will swap roles with their children as district representatives.

Outgoing Masbate Gov. Antonio Kho is running for first district representative, a seat currently held by his son Ricardo Kho, who is joining the gubernatorial race. Antonio’s wife, Vice Gov. Elisa Kho, will contest her daughter Olga “Ara” Kho’s congressional seat in the second district.

Ara is eyeing the mayoral post of Masbate City, while her brother Wilton Kho seeks reelection as third district representative.

In Valenzuela, neophyte Kenneth Gatchalian is gunning for the position of first district representative, a seat previously held by his brothers Senator Win, Valenzuela Mayor Wes, and most recently Rex, who resigned when he was appointed secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

Marikina Mayor Marcelino “Marcy” Teodoro seeks to replace his wife, Rep. Maan Teodoro (Marikina City, first district), in the House. The same scenario is true in the city’s second district, where former deputy speaker Miro Quimbo is contesting his wife Rep. Stella Quimbo’s seat. Both wives will face off in the mayoral race.  

In Negros Oriental’s third district, a Teves has held the congressional seat since its creation in 1987, a legacy now set to continue with Janice Teves Gaston, aunt of expelled Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr., running for the seat. He was removed from office following allegations of involvement in the assassination of Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo. 

Elsewhere, political families are fielding their sons as candidates: the Silverios in the first district of Bulacan, the Collanteses in the third district of Batangas, and the Barzagas in the fourth district of Cavite. In each case, the sons are set to replace their congressmen-parents, who themselves succeeded one another.

Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri’s wife Audrey Zubiri is running for the seat of her father-in-law Rep. Jose Maria Zubiri Jr. in Bukidnon’s third district.

Without a law prohibiting political dynasties, the term limits sped up the entry of the next generation of dynasts, said Teehankee.

Before martial law, he said there were only a few political dynasties because there were no term limits. A politician could occupy the same positions for as long as he is reelected. “The framers of the constitution introduced term limits, thinking it would deepen democracy [and] open up the seats for non-dynastic candidates.”

“That was a toxic combination. You introduce term limits without antipolitical dynasty legislation. It accelerated the rise of dynasties. The unintended consequence was that they multiplied,” Teehankee said.

3. Expand to new provinces, cities and towns

Political families have also expanded their influence to other provinces to consolidate their power, which Caritos referred to as “franchising.”

“They’re not content with their original territory, so they expand as well to nearby territories,” she said.

Mark Cojuangco, from the prominent dynasty in Tarlac, is seeking reelection as Pangasinan’s first district representative. His wife, former mayor and congresswoman Kimi Cojuangco, is a native of Pangasinan.

The Cojuangco dynasty began with patriarch Eduardo “Danding’’ Cojuangco’s election as Tarlac governor in 1967. Since then, other family members have held various political positions.

The Suansing family holds sway in both Nueva Ecija on the main island of Luzon and Sultan Kudarat in Mindanao.

Term-limited Rep. Horacio Suansing Jr. (Sultan Kudarat, second district) is passing the torch to his daughter Bella. His other daughter Mikaela is running for reelection as Nueva Ecija’s first district representative, a seat previously held by her mother Estrellita.

In Taguig City’s second district and San Juan City, sisters Amparo and Ysabel Zamora are seeking reelection as representatives, respectively. They are daughters of former San Juan Rep. Ronaldo Zamora. 

4. Intra-family rivalry

Rivalry heats up in several provincial districts as family members vie for the same positions, mostly likely securing the seat within the family.

In La Union’s first district, the congressional race is a face-off between Joy Ortega and her cousin, incumbent Rep. Francisco Paolo Ortega V.

Similarly, in Iloilo’s fifth district, Niel Tupas Jr. is challenging his sister-in-law Binky Tupas, wife of outgoing Rep. Raul Tupas, for the same seat.

In Nueva Ecija’s second district, siblings Mario Salvador and Micaela Salvador Violago, wife of incumbent Rep. Joseph Violago, are vying for the same position.

Former elections commissioner Luie Guia likened these family rivalries to the boxing sport. They serve only to entertain the voters, he said. In the end, Guia said, voters are not sure if one winning over the other will bring change.

5. Join the party-list system

Political dynasties have also been occupying party-list seats in the House of Representatives, which has allowed clans to hold up to three seats in the legislative chamber.

Many family members of incumbent district representatives are running in the party-list race.

Speaker Romualdez, who is seeking reelection as Leyte’s first district representative, is introducing his son Andrew to politics through the party-list system. The younger Romualdez is set to replace his mother Yedda as first nominee for the Tingog party-list group. Yedda is the sixth nominee.

Tingog is one of several regional party-list groups that has allowed political clans to expand their political influence.

The Tulfo can also have three nominees in the party-list elections. Sen. Raffy Tulfo’s wife, ACT-CIS Rep. Jocelyn Tulfo is seeking her third term. The senator’s sister, former tourism secretary Wanda Tulfo Teo, is also the first nominee of a new Ang Turismo party list group. Teo’s son is the third nominee.

The flawed party-list system has been criticized as a “backdoor” to the House for political dynasties and big businesses.

Caritos said adding an antidynasty provision in the Party-List System Act could prevent political families from taking advantage of the system. But like the passage of an anti-dynasty law, she isn’t hopeful that this will be passed in the near future.

Read more: That’s entertainment in politics

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Fathers and mothers passing on their government posts to sons and daughters, as if these were family heirlooms, is nothing new. But election watchdogs said it was jarring to watch political dynasties flaunt their power during the week-long filing of certificates of candidacy (COCs) this October.

It’s as if Oct. 1 to 8 was a scheduled family reunion for political dynasties who, wearing brand colors, trooped together to Commission on Elections (Comelec) offices across the country to formalize their election bids.  

Videos that flooded social media showed a fiesta-like atmosphere as political clans were welcomed by supporters at the venue. In some instances, there were dances, marching bands, and colorful tarpaulins.

A family photo was always taken, streamed live online, followed by interviews where they talked about passing down their elective positions as if they were theirs to give.

“If before the approach was more discreet, not all at once, now it seems like they’re even using the brand … ,” former Comelec Commissioner Luie Tito Guia told the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ).

An uproar followed the COC filing. Rona Ann Caritos, executive director of the Legal Network for Truthful Elections (Lente), said it is an opportunity to recall why political dynasties were prohibited by the framers of the 1987 Constitution. The prohibition remains unenforced because Congress has yet to pass an implementing law.

“We’ve been through many elections, and this (the rule of political dynasties) has always been the problem. But because some famous personalities, along with their family members, filed under such circumstances, it became a bigger concern,” Caritos said.

But can Congress be expected to pass a law against political dynasties?

Political science professor Julio Teehankee defines political dynasty as “the concentration, consolidation or perpetuation of political power in persons related to one another.”

“Kapag may kamag-anak ka. And, based on proposed laws, those who are related by consanguinity or affinity — consanguinity by blood of affinity in law. Some say it should extend up to the third degree, while others want it limited to the second degree,” said Teehankee, who has authored several studies on political dynasties in the country.

Using this definition, PCIJ research showed that over 80% of district seats in the House of Representatives are occupied by members of political dynasties.

Click the map to explore an interactive version.

Of the 253 district representatives, 142 or more than half are dynasts seeking reelection, PCIJ’s count shows.

The entire province of Ilocos Norte is dominated by reelectionist dynasts, with presidential son Ferdinand “Sandro” Marcos (first district) running for a second term and his uncle Angelo Marcos Barba (second district) fighting for a third term.

PCIJ’s count also shows that at least 67 outgoing district representatives have opted to switch positions with family members, ensuring their political influence remains intact. Nearly half of them are term-limited.

In Las Piñas City, Sen. Cynthia Villar and her daughter, Rep. Camille Villar, are swapping places, with the former sliding back to run as a congresswoman and the latter gunning for a Senate seat. 

These are two of several ways political dynasties are able to stay in power: reelection and swapping.

Underdevelopment and corruption

What’s so wrong about the concentration of power in a few political families?

Studies have shown a correlation between the high concentration of political families, underdevelopment, and corruption.

A 2022 research by the Ateneo School of Government revealed that “political concentration in a province creates conditions for predatory behavior that broadens the dynast’s opportunities for corruption while also limiting the ways citizens and business actors can hold them accountable.”

In places where dynasts rule, there’s less room for checks and balances, said Caritos.

“If you have families controlling the executive and controlling the legislative branch of government, there’s no check and balance anymore. That’s why corruption happens … why people don’t get the service and the programs that they really deserve,” she said.

But political families are fighting back against criticisms. When quizzed about their families, political dynasts assert their right to run for election.

‘Low supply of competent leaders’

But why do Filipinos vote them into power? It’s because of their ability to provide for their constituency through social programs and dole-outs or “ayuda,” said Teehankee.

Voters, in turn, “pay back” by casting their ballots for political dynasties, said Caritos. But she has one reminder: “Hindi naman galing sa (dynasties) ang aid na ‘yan … Nanggagaling yan sa buwis natin (The aid doesn’t come from dynasties, but from our taxes).”

Teehankee also attributes the problem to a “low supply” of competent leaders.

“There’s a high demand among voters for good politics, good governance, and issue-based politics. The problem is, there’s a limited supply of such kind of politicians due to cartel, oligopoly, monopoly of dynasties,” he said.\\“It’s costly for ordinary people to get into politics. And yet there’s a huge incentive for traditional politicians and dynasties to remain in power,” Teehankee added.

Renewed calls to pass antidynasty law

Citizens who were disgruntled by dynasties’ show of political might have renewed calls to pass an anti-dynasty law, something that the 1987 Constitution mandates.

Even Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero, who belongs to the powerful Escudero clan in Sorsogon, vowed not to block the passing of such a measure should the time come. 

“Dahil produkto ako n’yan, hindi ko haharangin ‘yan. Kung kailangan ng boto ko para mapasa ‘yan, boboto ako dahil laban naman ‘yun sa interest ko (I’m a product of that, but I won’t block its passage. If my vote is needed for its passage, I’ll vote for it),” he said in a press conference.

But Escudero said political reform advocates should not get their hopes up. He said it has a slim chance of approval.

Read more: That’s entertainment in politics

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As leaders debate the far-reaching political ramifications of the Supreme Court’s ruling excluding the province from the region, the BARMM government is in a quandary over whether to keep the 5,733 employees.

They include teachers, nonteaching personnel, doctors and nurses based in Sulu who are drawing their salary from the BARMM. For 2024, the budget for their salary is P3.4 billion. 

“They’ll receive their pay for Sept. 1-Sept. 15. Their pay for Sept. 16 onward has been the subject of discussion of the Cabinet for the past few days,” BARMM Cabinet Secretary Mohd Asnin Pendatun told journalists in Quezon City on Monday.

Humanitarian reasons

In the end, the Cabinet decided to pay their salaries until the end of 2024 for “humanitarian reasons,” and given the fact that these have already been budgeted for the whole year, said Pendatun, who also serves as BARMM spokesperson. He added, however, that the employees had to sign a document stating their willingness to return their salary if auditors issue a notice of disallowance.

Whether the employees get to keep their jobs in 2025 is another matter.

Asked if the Sulu provincial government could absorb the employees in 2025 onward, Pendatun said: “That’s an option, but I’m not sure that they’re ready.” He recalled that when the BARMM took over from its precursor, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, it took them a year “to phase out the employees.”

Many other projects involving Sulu are ongoing and may be discontinued in view of the Supreme Court’s ruling that is immediately executory, according to Pendatun.

In a ruling written by Senior Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, the high court upheld on Sept. 9 the constitutionality of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) establishing the BARMM, but ruled that Sulu is not part of the autonomous region.

Sulu had petitioned against its inclusion in the BARMM after the majority of its residents voted against the BOL in a 2019 plebiscite. Nevertheless, the province was included in the BARMM.

The high court’s ruling sent shockwaves across the autonomous region which is now in the thick of preparations for the election of its first set of members of parliament in May 2025, which coincides with the midterm elections.

Irony

The irony of the BARMM losing Sulu—the cradle of the region’s struggle for an independent Bangsamoro—was not lost on some political leaders.

“Then as now, it will remain the symbol of the Moro’s fight against repression,” House Deputy Minority Leader Mujiv Hataman of Basilan said, noting that many Moro rebels and mujahideen had come from Sulu. 

It may leave the door open for other provinces to also leave the BARMM, warned Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong. “The cracks in this collective struggle for autonomy may undo the decades of effort that brought us to this point. We all find ourselves back in square one,” he said.

For now, Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Tan may have to abandon any plan of becoming the autonomous region’s chief minister. Until the high court’s ruling, he was widely expected to lead the BARMM Grand Coalition to win seats in next year’s parliamentary elections and get himself elected as chief minister.

It was Tan who had fiercely opposed Sulu’s inclusion in the BARMM.  

The Commission on Elections has reset the filing of certificates of candidacy for BARMM parliament seats to Nov. 4-9, from Oct. 1-8. Of the 80 parliament seats up for grabs in next year’s elections, seven will be representing Sulu.

“We now have seven district seats that are hanging,” Pendatun told reporters. “The ideal setup is we have to amend the laws that need to be amended, such as the districting law, so that these district seats can be transferred to other provinces.” But he said it would be “tedious.”

The other option proposed by Comelec Chair George Erwin Garcia is to push through with the elections but keep Sulu’s district seats unfilled.

“If that happens,” Pendatun said, “we will have a 73-member parliament by 2025.”

Parliament member Michael Midtimbang has filed a resolution urging the Senate and the House of Representatives to reschedule the BARMM elections.

He said this would allow the Bangsamoro Transition Authority to amend the Bangsamoro Autonomy Act No. 58 so that Sulu’s seven districts could be allotted to remaining territories within the BARMM.

So far, there is no such bill pending in Congress.

Read more: Floods, foreign funds and fiascos

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This was what Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert “Ace” Barbers said in describing the path that lawyer and former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, now again facing detention for defying a subpoena of the House of Representatives’ quad committee, appears to be treading.

Barbers, who heads the quad committee looking into, among others, the alleged irregularities of Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos) during the previous administration, recalled to CoverStory.ph on Saturday night how Roque as spokesperson of President Rodrigo Duterte would warn those being probed that if they did nothing bad, then they had nothing to fear and should face accusations.

“Now that applies to you,” the lawmaker said of Roque, who is facing a second but longer detention period in the House for his failure to submit documents that would show he had not benefited from a Pogo being investigated for illegal activities in Porac, Pampanga.

The quad committee again cited Roque in contempt after he failed to produce the documents at a hearing on Sept. 12. It was the third hearing that he had skipped. He was first cited in contempt by the quad committee and held for 24 hours in the House detention facility after he was deemed to have lied about his whereabouts during the second hearing last Aug. 16.

As of Sunday morning, Roque had yet to be served the arrest warrant issued by the quad committee.
The panel, made up of four House committees, is conducting an inquiry into the possible correlations among illegal Pogos, the trade in illegal drugs, and extrajudicial killings during the Duterte administration.

Increased assets

So far, Roque has been asked to explain the surge of his wealth during the boom period of Pogos. Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro raised questions on the sudden increase of Roque’s assets—from P125,000 before 2016 to P125 million in 2018.

Roque had promised the quad committee to produce documents to show that his family sold a 1.8-hectare property of his late aunt, the proceeds of which supposedly went to his family-owned company and subsidiaries. But he reneged on that commitment and instead filed a motion to stop the committee from getting the documents; the committee in turn threw out his motion during its Sept.12 hearing.

Roque has been linked to Lucky South 99, the raided Pogo hub in Porac where documents with his signature were found. He has repeatedly denied any connection with Lucky South 99.

From the hearings, Roque was found to have accompanied Katherine Cassandra Li Ong, a stakeholder of Whirlwind Corp., to the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., for the settlement of unpaid dues for a Pogo license.

Ong, along with Sheila Guo, the supposed sister of ex-Mayor Alice Guo of Bamban, Tarlac, are currently detained in the House after they were ordered arrested by the quad committee. Ong and the Guos fled the Philippines in July but they have since been separately arrested in Indonesia and transported back to the country.

Alice Guo, said to be a Chinese national, is being investigated for her links to an illegal Pogo in Bamban. She is under court detention in Valenzuela City.

‘Witch hunt’

Roque has publicly described the quad committee as a “kangaroo court” engaged in a “witch hunt,” angering its members.

Barbers recalled to CoverStory.ph that Roque, then a party-list congressman, manifested during the 2016 House investigation of allegations that then senator Leila de Lima had benefited from the illegal drug trade, that he was taking exception to her statement that the inquiry was a “kangaroo court.”

At that time, De Lima had refused to attend the House hearings, which she likened to “the Salem witch trials” in the United States, with her being “burn[ed]at the stake.”

“And now [Roque] is saying the same thing, that the quad committee is a kangaroo court. What’s the saying? What goes around, comes around,” Barbers said.
According to the lawmaker, the problem with Roque is that he is badmouthing the quad committee after attending its hearings.

“This is a request [to Roque] from a former colleague. He should not insult the panel. He can do it in front of us; that’s our challenge to him,” Barbers said, adding that the committee would act if he alleges that it is violating his rights.

Roque filed a motion to squash the panel subpoena ordering him to submit his statements of assets and liabilities from 2016 to 2022, his and his wife Maila’s income tax returns from 2014 to 2022 and their respective medical certificates, the extrajudicial settlement of the estate including the tax returns of his late aunt, and the deed of sale with tax returns and transfer of property of the 1.8-hectare property in Multinational Village, Paranaque City, that his family had supposedly sold.

Next hearing set

The quad committee is hoping that Roque would be served the arrest warrant before its next hearing set for Wednesday or Thursday.

Barbers said Roque’s law firm in Makati City had refused to accept the arrest warrant brought by the House sergeant at arms who waited until the office closed its doors on Friday night. He said he had not yet received any feedback from the House sergeant at arms, whose next stop, he said, should be Roque’s residence.

The lawmaker said the arrest order also stipulates that Roque be placed in the Bureau of Immigration’s lookout bulletin, “so we will know if he will leave the country.”
Asked what would happen if Roque remains elusive, Barbers said law enforcement authorities would have to look for him “until they locate him, and bring him to the House detention facility.”

Barbers said Roque’s no-show at the House would make things look bad for him because “this is his opportunity to clarify and answer the allegations against him.”

Should Roque fail to show up, Barbers said, “there is a saying in law—flight is indicative of guilt.”

“Roque should produce those documents; otherwise, there might be a different conclusion by the committee members. He promised to show them to us,” Barbers also said.

On how long the quad committee plans to conduct its inquiry, he said it has already passed the 50% mark of the issues to be substantiated after five hearings. “We want to complete whatever needs to be substantiated so we can do our committee report,” he said.

The post Barbers on Roque: ‘What goes around comes around’ appeared first on CoverStory.

The photograph that accompanied the Philippine News Agency report, taken at a madrasah in Caloocan City, showed Duterte looking fetching in a hijab with a child similarly attired. Each bag was reported as containing school supplies such as two notebooks, two pens, three pencils, a box of crayons, a sharpener, etc. There was no mention of the now-controversial children’s book authored by herself, “Isang Kaibigan” (A Friend), which is supposedly intended to be part of each bag’s contents. 

The general public first got wind of “Isang Kaibigan” in the Aug. 21 hearing at the Senate, where Duterte lit into Sen. Risa Hontiveros for “politicizing” the proposed P2-billion budget of the Office of the Vice President for 2025. Hontiveros had inquired about the book’s printing cost of P10 million, to which Duterte did not take kindly; she repeatedly accused the senator of “pamumulitika” and refused to answer questions. But in the end, Duterte’s conduct unbecoming notwithstanding, the Senate approved the OVP’s proposed appropriation for plenary action, anyway.

How time flies

Over at the House on Aug. 27, an example of how time flies was amply demonstrated. It was only a year ago that it took less than 15 minutes for the OVP’s proposed budget for 2024 to be deemed submitted to the plenary, with the activist Makabayan bloc quite literally shut up by the muting of their mic.

This time around, the hearing on the OVP’s proposed budget for 2025 ran up to five hours, marked by Duterte’s antagonistic stance toward her would-be interpellators. There was no Senior Deputy Majority Leader Sandro Marcos to move to halt the deliberations on grounds of “tradition” and ”parliamentary courtesy,” and no select group of lawmakers to promptly carry his motion. In the end, the House committee on appropriations deferred the deliberations and scheduled the continuation of proceedings on Sept. 10, leaving the OVP’s proposed budget high and dry.

The seismic shift comes after the Vice President’s break from her UniTeam partner, President Marcos Jr.—a break so complete that she has sought forgiveness from the members of the cult Kingdom of Jesus Christ for convincing them to vote for him in 2022. The break appears to have cast her out in the cold, a condition that she acknowledged when, in the course of insisting on “forgoing the opportunity” to explain her office’s proposed budget in Q&A fashion, she caustically remarked to the presiding officer about “all of you [lawmakers] there and me alone here.” (Not exactly true: She had a few House members, including one of her besties, ex-President and Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, defending her from questioning on the P125-million confidential funds that she famously spent in 11 days in 2022 when she was still concurrent education secretary.)

The presiding officer happened to be Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo, who in a not so distant past ably defended the OVP’s request for confidential funds—and drew both appreciation (from Duterte) and flak (from appalled sectors) for it. This time around the senior vice chair of the House committee on appropriations occasionally appeared flustered at Duterte’s combative language and demeanor, coming across as slow to react to the latter’s displayed contempt for the behavioral demands of the proceedings. When the Vice President impatiently called for someone else to serve as presiding officer of the hearing, Madame Chair was hard put to put the budget proponent in her place. 

Much later, responding to reporters’ request for comment, Senate President Francis Escudero wryly described Duterte as clearly unaccustomed to being questioned on official matters. Indeed, a review of similar occasions in the House would show that she had officers assigned to answer questions in her behalf or to prod or cue her whenever she faltered in her own responses. But now, sitting on the metaphorical hot seat in the chamber that housed her father’s supermajority when he was president, she was derisive and defensive, could not be bothered to abide by parliamentary rules, and would not countenance questioning by those she called “communist” and “child abuse convict.” 

The sponsor of the OVP’s proposed budget, Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong, sat quietly during the hearing. Later the otherwise articulate lawmaker expressed frustration at the 5-hour exchange and remarked that it would now be “a lot difficult” to push the proposed appropriation in plenary. The lawyer Michael Poa, who formerly spoke for the Department of Education where he was undersecretary and now speaks for the OVP, sat by himself behind his boss as she held the fort of her disdain during the proceedings. He was later reported as saying that he was arranging a meeting between the Vice President and “Cong Adiong.” 

Earlier, Poa denied to the Inquirer that “Isang Kaibigan” was intended as campaign material for the 2028 presidential election; he said it was meant to “encourage reading” among young Filipinos. But for all the book’s projected benefits for the youth, it doesn’t look like promising reading: Critics including the Filipino American novelist Ninotchka Rosca describe it as unoriginal and erroneous in parts. The author has promised to quickly follow up the children’s book on friendship with another, this time on betrayal. It’s unclear if the second book will also require a multimillion-peso allocation for printing.

At one point the Vice President said she came alone to the hearing so only she would be held in detention in the event that she is cited for contempt. But the proceedings were not an investigation but deliberations on how taxpayer money is intended to be spent. Perhaps she was thinking of her father’s former spokesperson who was deemed by lawmakers to have lied about his absence at a hearing in the inquiry into pogos (or Philippine offshore gaming operators), to which he has been linked. Harry Roque was held at the House for 24 hours for what he calls an “honest mistake,” and he has taken to calling himself, straight-faced, a “political detainee.” 

Reversal of fortunes

The temptation is great to view these occurrences as simply a matter of the shoe being on the other foot, a spectacle involving those who now find themselves on the opposite end of power and cry persecution at losing its perks and entitlements. It’s an interesting study of a reversal of fortunes that often accompanies a change in administration, or transactional politics gone sideways. Still, the events are free-flowing and focus has to be maintained to ensure significant results. Think of what public backlash can accomplish apart from preventing the allocation of confidential funds to agencies that have no need for them.

Meanwhile, Filipinos young and old are reading about and being regaled by memes on the Vice President’s impolitic exchange with members of Congress, as well as Roque’s laughable attempt to rally forces to his “cause.” Comic relief may be helpful up to a certain point; in the long resistance against the Marcos dictatorship, it helped keep despondency at bay and spirits alive. But efforts should continue to be directed at identifying and keeping the issues crystal: How will a P2-billion budget be spent effectively for the people’s welfare? Confidential funds are now excluded from the OVP’s budget—by virtue of public backlash—but what will happen to the money found by the Commission on Audit to have been spent on irrelevant matters? Or, in Roque’s case, what exactly constitute his links to the pogos for which a former Cabinet member is said to have lobbied?

“Filipino audiences have a penchant for soap operas and gossip, especially when it involves public figures—who they are dating and how they are spending their money,” BBC reported on Aug. 9 in the course of covering how the very public feud between the gymnast Carlos Yulo and his mother was stealing the thunder from his historic twin golds in the Paris Olympics.

It’s dismaying for “Filipino audiences” to be thus characterized, with such a “penchant” pinned exclusively on them. But in the online frenzy over the spectacle of the moment—whether it concerns the Vice President’s programs that apparently include her budding writing career or Roque’s intriguing land holdings—it’s urgent for Filipinos to be informed, aware, and able to see beyond the performative.

The post Seismic shift for the Vice President appeared first on CoverStory.

She is remembered as the barumbada (sadly, I can’t find a word in English to approximate its meaning) mayora from Davao who pummeled a local official who didn’t follow her orders in front of a video camera and several witnesses. She made the six o’clock news, but was there a public apology for such brutish behavior? Nah.

Apparently, she built on that reputation as a no-nonsense local executive who will brook no nonsense were she to be elected to the second highest office in the land. This “common touch” may have endeared her to those voters in May 2022 who like their candidates feisty.

But at the height of Typhoon “Carina” early in August, she insensitively pushed through with a leisure trip to Germany. (Who knows? She may have snuck in at the Paris Olympics, but this remains to be proven.) Was she pushing some Filipino talent in Deutschland? That could be a suitable rationale, but no, she is said to have brought her family with her to watch American pop idol Taylor Swift’s concert.

Gosh! Doesn’t she even realize the sacrifices that Filipino musicians, pop, jazz or classical, go through to barely make it? This is not to praise President Marcos Jr. on his occasional patronage of local classical musicians, but as the former education secretary, she is expected some show of support for our artists, the country’s best ambassadors.

And then came the Ang Kaibigan children’s book fiasco. We have to acknowledge Sen. Risa Hontiveros for her sober and determined questioning of the novice author who couldn’t even give a synopsis of the short text during the hearing on her office’s proposed budget. The honorable senator looked, to use a term picked up in social media, “pisstified” because no logical answers were forthcoming from the Vice President. (“Pisstified” means pissed off and mystified at the same time.)

As the days wore on, the public following how the VP unraveled was even more astonished that the book’s plot and characters may have been possibly plagiarized from a Scholastic Books title. New York-based novelist Ninotchka Rosca was the first to call this out in a Facebook post. More Facebook users like National Artist Virgilio Almario trotted out page by page evidence showing the uncanny similarity of Duterte’s book and the Scholastic title.

Still, the VP is saying the similarity is just coincidental and hers is an original creative work. My foot! as my late hotelier friend Heiner Maulbecker would say when faced with BS from public officials.

Writers and authors came out hurt and insulted, decrying how difficult it is to even write, much more to write a children’s story, and get the work published, marketed and distributed to schools. And here is Duterte’s P10-million book with the author’s photo in her trademark green terno at the back, possibly thinking she could fool the public that she seems to have little regard for.

Before heads could cool over this book faux pas, there she was again, facing the House of Representatives this time for her proposed Office of the Vice President budget. She became an overnight meme with her funny English pronunciation of the phrase “She may not…,” repeatedly saying “Shimenet” while those watching the live video streamed on their TV and computer screens doubled over in laughter.

I’ve always believed that arrogant government officials would someday meet their comeuppance, and it will be in the form of mass ridicule. Now if laughter can only boot the underserving and unqualified out of office, I will be thankful that there is a modicum of justice in this world.

Read more: Quad committee’s upcoming hearings will be a ‘blockbuster’

The post How do you solve a problem like Sara Duterte? appeared first on CoverStory.

The number of cops is 1,000 more than what was initially planned, which may lead the curious to wonder if the increase had anything to do with the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, now formally the US Republican Party’s candidate for Potus, or Vice President Sara Duterte’s announcement of her absence at the Sona and her assignment of herself as the “designated survivor.” 

In the face of backlash generated by that provocative term, Duterte has described her announcement as neither joke (biro) nor threat (banta)—yet another instance of vague repartee, whether her own or formulated by her comms team, that portrays her as flippant and ultimately unhelpful.

Whatever, the President will deliver his third Sona with plenty on his plate, much of it, including lowered trust and approval ratings, worrisome to Malacañang. He has a lot of things to say and is concerned that the speech might be too long, he said in a TV news clip on Friday while visiting parts north to inaugurate agri projects and to distribute “ayuda” of close to P500 million to sectors hit hard by El Niño. 

Whether lengthy or brief, his Sona is eagerly awaited (in a manner that perhaps his predecessor’s profanity-rich annual reports were not). Many of those tuned in will be basing future actions according to what they will hear from him, such as the leading lights of about 50 medical and health care organizations who informed the public in a press conference on Friday of their intent to take their case to the Supreme Court if he ignores their plea—the intense Filipino term “nagsusumamo” was used—to disallow the transfer of PhilHealth’s “excess funds” of P899 billion to the national treasury. They said only he, the President, can override the Department of Finance on the fund transfer that, they emphasized, counters the Universal Health Care Act, and against which certain economists have earlier sounded alarm bells. 

Economics

Is there ground for Mr. Marcos to expect a well-received Sona? The fact is that current economics provides inhospitable terrain for any planned glowing report by him, with, among other things, labor justly insulted by the proposed P35 minimum wage increase in Metro Manila, jeepney drivers and operators still at odds with, or plainly unable to afford the attendant costs of, the government’s jeepney modernization program, and specific health care frontliners in the battle against Covid-19 still awaiting their health emergency allowances after all these years.

In June, Pulse Asia recorded high inflation as the paramount factor troubling most Filipinos. As much as 72% said controlling inflation requires the government’s “immediate” attention, followed by increasing workers’ wages (44%), reducing poverty (32%), creating more jobs (30%), fighting government corruption (22%), and easing involuntary hunger (20%).

“Controlling the spiraling prices of basic commodities” is “the only issue, out of 17, that is considered an urgent national concern by the majority of the country’s adult population,” Pulse Asia said. Indeed, the ever-rising costs of food, fuel and utilities—and everything else down the line—are top of mind because grounded in reality, making, for example, “the nouveau poor” no longer just a cute turn of phrase among a cluster of the middle class slowly losing their toehold on a particular way of life, but a critical mass. 

Where are “the nouveau poor” reflected in the surveys? In June, the Social Weather Stations recorded 58% of Filipino families rating themselves as Poor (mahirap)—up by12 points from 46% in March (the SWS’s Mahar Mangahas wrote in his Saturday column in the Inquirer that “so large a jump is not a sampling blip”). The Not Poor (hindi mahirap) was 30%, and the Borderline was 12%. 

Mangahas discussed the reality of the three categories and the necessity of “repeated quantitative monitoring” to understand the dynamics of poverty. “Over the past four decades, the largest group has generally been the Poor, the middle-sized has been the Borderline, and the smallest has been the Not Poor. With more analysis of the data, how can this order be reversed?” he wrote.

Beyond the numbers, how can impoverishment be reversed, with huge amounts of public funds lost to graft-ridden government projects and official theft, and drought and monsoon rains alternately devastating agricultural lands north and south and plunging farmers deeper in debt? “Ayuda”—the state distribution of which is constantly aired, with the receivers invariably shown in postures of gratitude as though accepting largesse from private donors—can only go so far. 

Actual benefits 

Yet a glowing Sona—one that conveys sensible action plans and actual benefits for sectors in dire need, making it truly deserving of the rounds of applause commonly interrupting it, and not one filled with, say, “misleading claims and falsehoods,” as Trump’s nomination-acceptance speech was described on CNN—is within the realm of the possible. 

Think of what P125 million in confidential funds, the sort awarded to agencies not even in need of them and spent with impunity within days, could have done for the training and increased salaries of public school teachers who carry the formidable responsibility of educating generations of Filipinos. Imagine, in another time, what the P12 billion paid by the government to Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. for shoddy and overpriced Covid-19 supplies, could have done to construct and staff public hospitals in the remote regions; or conceive of the intensive training of Filipino athletes that could have been subsidized by the P50-million “Olympic cauldron” produced in 2019 under the aegis of the Philippine SEA Games Organizing Committee led by then Taguig Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano.

Filipinos were doubtless reminded of the cauldron touted as a priceless work of art, and other things besides, when Cayetano, now senator and chair of the Senate committee on accounts, launched a hearing early in July on the purported P23-billion cost of the new Senate building. He had the crust to tell the latecomer Sen. Nancy Binay, his predecessor in the committee, that they were in the Senate and not a wet market. It came across more vividly in Filipino—Senado ito, hindi palengke, he said, suggesting that the chamber deserved better, classier, behavior than what she was displaying. 

But he appeared like a palengkero himself: raising his voice and dispensing accusations of rumor-mongering and of supplying reporters with planted questions. He actually called Binay crazy when she, apparently feeling that she had made her point, walked out. (In the startling exchange captured on cam and aired in TV news loops, Sen. Robinhood Padilla—whose spouse once thought nothing of using the Senate building in the conduct of her beauty protocols, even posting one such activity online—was seen stolidly watching his colleagues and chewing on his lunch.)

Binay has since filed an ethics complaint against Cayetano; he has since issued a general apology for his behavior. Former senator Panfilo Lacson, who chaired the committee on accounts during his term, lamented that the heated exchange had wrongly suggested to the public another case of abuse of public funds. That may be so. It also called to mind that in other times, separately, Binay’s family members and Cayetano himself were embroiled in issues concerning the questionable use of taxpayer money. (Another point of recall was Cayetano reneging on an agreement over a shared speakership in the House. But his striking performance alongside Mr. Marcos in a 2016 vice presidential debate that touched on government corruption and the Marcos hidden wealth likewise momentarily surfaced. Memory bites.)

P6-trillion budget 

The President is expected to defend the P6.352-trillion budget for 2025 and his administration’s spending priorities, including food security, health care, digital connectivity, etc. The record-high figure is said to reflect the planned bigger budget allocation for local government units and the additional funding requirements for the midterm elections. The expenses for a modernized military including, crucially, the Navy and Coast Guard front-lining the country’s defense of its sovereign rights in its exclusive economic zone comprise information not to be missed.

Also of critical attention is the issue of the Philippines’ external debt, which stood at a frightening high of US$128.7 billion in March, and the corresponding debt service.

The sale to low-income families of stock rice at P29/kilo in Kadiwa stores in the metro has been constantly in the news, with authorities announcing plans for its extension, and still lower prices of the staple, in other areas nationwide. The gut issue of rice is a cinch for Mr. Marcos’ Sona, highlighting as it does a seeming path toward fulfilling his campaign promise of rice at P20/kilo, while burnishing the Kadiwa brand, a pillar of his father’s authoritarian regime. A reduction in the rice tariff has allowed the influx of imported rice, suggesting abundance amid difficulty and want. Barely known to the general public is that farmer groups are opposed to the tariff cut that, they argue, will hurt both local producers and consumers and deprive the government of revenues. They have sought the Supreme Court’s intervention. 

Then there are the Pogos, or Philippine offshore gaming operators, lately exposed as startling emblems of power and influence. The President has all this time been mum on whether he considers them boon (for the money they bring) or bane (for the accompanying high crimes and sleaze and the general danger, to speak nothing of the disrepute, they pose to the republic). The call that they be banished from Philippine shores grows ever louder, but it’s uncertain if, in the din of the coming election year, he can hear.

Read more: Sara Duterte’s breakaway

Firm stance on sea row, total ban on POGOs sought

By Isa Jane Acabal

Civil society groups are calling on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to respond strongly to the West Philippine Sea (WPS) conflict and totally ban Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, July 22.

“At present, [Chinese} aggression still continues and is even intensifying, and this affects the lives and safety of our fishermen,” Chloe Ong, Liberal Party Youth representative, said in Filipino.

Ong spoke with other co-convenors of Tindig Pilipinas during the coalition’s press conference on July 18. She urged Marcos Jr. to take a firm stance in asserting the Philippines’ rights over the WPS within its 370-kilometer (200-nautical-mille) exclusive economic zone.

Khylla Meneses, secretary general of Akbayan Youth, challenged the President and namesake of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos to declare the total ban on POGOs in the country.

“Let Duterte, Harry Roque and Mayor Alice Guo be held liable for the abduction and trafficking of women like us),” Meneses said in Filipino.

Duterte allowed the proliferation of online gambling operations during his term, while Roque was believed to have acted as counsel to some POGO operators. Guo is under Senate investigation into the raid of a POGO complex in her hometown, as well as reports of abduction and human trafficking there.

Business groups

Earlier, the Makati Business Club (MBC) issued a joint statement with other groups saying that POGOs had contributed little to the economy compared to their social costs. They also cited their involvement in human trafficking, kidnapping, and money laundering.

“The crimes related to POGO investments can hinder growth, affect investor perception, and potentially affect our bilateral and multilateral relations,” the statement said.

Other signatories were the Alyansa Agrikultura, Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines, Foundation for Economic Freedom, Institute of Corporate Directors, Justice Reform Initiative, Management Association of the Philippines, and the University of the Philippines’ School of Economics Alumni Association.

The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) supported the closing of POGOs but cautioned that abrupt closure could lead to job losses and disrupt related businesses.

“We call on Pagcor (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.) and other government agencies involved in regulating POGO operations … to carefully review the mandates from licenses, work licenses and tax obligations of the POGO operators,” said PCCI President Consul Enunina V. Mangio.

Education reforms

Mathew Silverio of Youth Resist, another Tindig Pilipinas convenor, appealed to Marcos Jr. and Department of Education Secretary Sonny Angara not to disappoint Filipino students and act to stem the education crisis.

“More classrooms and [educational] infrastructures. And utilities in Gida (geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas), adequate salaries for teachers, and upholding of rights of students,” he said in Filipino. 

Silverio reiterated his group’s call to reform the K-12 curriculum in order to “respond to our own needs, not of other countries.”

Former presidential adviser Teresita “Ging” Deles, another Tindig convenor, said Marcos Jr. should look into Duterte’s involvement in reported human rights violations during the drug war as cited in a complaint before the International Criminal Court (ICC).

For Solidar/Talisayen convenor Teddy Lopez, the ICC investigation is an opportunity for the Filipinos to witness an “unbiased process that reveals the truth behind abuses that occurred, particularly during the last administration.”

A one-act play “Tango Inferno: Sayaw ng Dalawang Uhaw,” written and directed by Jessie G. Villabrille, was performed before the start of the press conference. 

The play showcased with humor the conversation between Vhong (portrayed by Alvin Astudillo) and Shara (portrayed by Cha Dumayag), characters representing Marcos Jr. and Vice president Sara Duterte respectively, before the SONA.

Isa Jane Acabal, a journalism student of the University of the Philippines’ College of Mass Communication, is an intern of CoverStory.ph.

The post Marcos Jr.’s Sona and great expectations appeared first on CoverStory.

In saying that their alliance was formed only for the 2022 elections and that they are no longer candidates, Sara Duterte was announcing that her breakaway from the Cabinet was not a matter of if but when. When it did come to pass a week later, it drew unsurprised reactions from the usual talking heads. And the loud calls directed at Mr. Marcos to appoint a seasoned, reform-minded person to handle the education portfolio that she would irrevocably relinquish on July 19 suggested not only the dissatisfaction and unhappiness of certain stakeholders at her stint but also the hope that it would not last.

Being education secretary was not the concurrent post that Sara Duterte wanted, at any rate. Early on she had made known that in the event of the UniTeam’s victory, she wanted to head the Department of National Defense. (Imagine the possibilities.) That her expressed preference was not favored is now being cited as the first “crack” in the tandem’s alliance. Maybe so. But it would seem that the biggest crack was her running in 2022 as No. 2—and not as No. 1, as her father, then President Rodrigo Duterte, was said to have demanded. 

Recall the mad flurry in the period for the filing of candidacies in 2021: The situation was so fluid, the maneuvering so intense, that “placeholders” had to be employed to keep prospective slots warm. Sara Duterte was running as mayor of the family bailiwick Davao City but eventually ditched that race. (Her brother took up her candidacy.) Then, in the course of one day, she quit her Hugpong ng Pagbabago and was sworn into the ruling Lakas-CMD by the party president, then Majority Leader Martin Romualdez of the House of Representatives. Shortly, she sent someone to file her candidacy as Mr. Marcos’  running mate. In the ensuing tumult, Rodrigo Duterte’s longtime minder, Sen. Bong Go, and even Rodrigo Duterte himself, were reported at varying points as prepping to run as her opponent for the No. 2 post.

Combative stance 

Per her office’s recitation of her accomplishments, Sara Duterte performed well as chief of the Department of Education. Certain groups are unimpressed. And her Ill-advised combative stance toward activist teachers wrought much damage to her administration; the mistrust and resultant strain in what could have become a working relationship could not be undone. 

Teachers remain miserably paid, students are cellar dwellers in world rankings. Her harping on the alleged communist affiliations of teachers outspoken about their deplorable working conditions and the government’s neglect of public schools and indeed the educational system in general could not cloud the realities on the ground. That the Supreme Court recently ruled that Red-tagging threatens the life, liberty and security of those thus labeled exposed her hostility to activist teachers as unsound and dangerous. As a result, her claim that her resignation as education secretary was caused not by weakness but compassion for teachers and the youth, along with her promise that she would “continue to be a mother” to them, came across as puzzling and ultimately contradictory.

It does not help Sara Duterte that the issue of her confidential funds—or money spent by civilian agencies on surveillance and intelligence gathering—remains fresh in the collective memory. Quite unforgettable is the statement prepared by her comms team in 2023 when she was requesting a total of P625 million for the Office of the Vice President and the DepEd for 2024, and reaping the whirlwind for it: that those questioning her use of confidential funds are driven by “insidious motivations,” that those opposed to confidential funds are “opposed to peace,” and that those opposed to peace are “enemies of the people.” 

As it happened, the public agitation over the matter having reached such levels as could conceivably impact on the midterm elections, the House under now-Speaker Romualdez, despite the efforts of her champions in the chamber, realigned the confidential funds to agencies most in need of them. But it is on record that Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte received  and spent confidential funds worth P125 million in 11 days in 2022.

Burdened by baggage

Now the reckoning goes that with the sought funds withheld—leading Sara Duterte’s furious father to rip into the House and even Mr. Marcos, accusing one as corrupt and the other as, variously, addicted to drugs and a crybaby, and warning of a downfall akin to the toppling of the Marcos Sr. dictatorship—what was the point of her staying in the Cabinet? Indeed. Burdened by the baggage of Rodrigo Duterte’s benign stance vis a vis China’s incursions into the West Philippine Sea, she is unable to manage even an expression of concern for Filipino fishers  threatened with arrest for venturing into their own country’s exclusive economic zone. She will protest the use of “excessive force” in the serving of an arrest warrant on Apollo Quiboloy, Rodrigo Duterte’s spiritual adviser who is accused of sexual and other crimes, but she will keep mum on the thousands of extrajudicial killings under the aegis of the “war on drugs.” Nor will she comment on Mr. Marcos’ directive to incorporate the “Bagong Pilipinas” hymn and pledge into the flag ceremony of public schools, an act of historical erasure directed at young Filipinos bereft of education on martial law.

The ironies abound, so much so that her status as Cabinet member and the President’s alter ego has truly become untenable (a description used by former Senate president Franklin Drilon as early as February in an interview with CoverStory, in which he also said that the UniTeam’s “chances of permanently breaking up are very high.”)

Sara Duterte’s primary allies, Sen. Imee Marcos and Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, had differing reactions to her resignation as education secretary and vice chair of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict. Imee Marcos (the President’s elder sister) said she’s with the VP “all the way.” Arroyo, guarded, issued a nonstatement, perhaps still waiting for the dust to clear.

The legend goes that these three women make things happen, as when then Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez was cut down even as Rodrigo Duterte cooled his heels in the House lounge, waiting to deliver his State of the Union Address. (Arroyo was installed in Alvarez’s place shortly afterwards.) Their ties apparently run deep. Imee Marcos has been quoted as saying that she would stick with the Dutertes even if she’s the only one left. When Arroyo was demoted from senior deputy speaker to being one among many deputy speakers—for alleged machinations, which she promptly denied, against the House’s top guy (the Marcoses’ first cousin)—Sara Duterte quickly quit the ruling party.

‘Opposition’

The anti-Marcos and pro-Duterte camps are now touting Sara Duterte as the next leader of the opposition. The absurdity has raised the hackles of what Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman called, correctly, “the ideological and conscientious opposition.” Its movers and shakers have their work cut out for them in the run-up to the 2025 elections: to demonstrate the stark differences between those who use transactional political alliances to attain power and those who organize with like-minded forces to present a workable framework of public service founded on, according to Liberal Party spokesperson Leila de Lima, “accountability, transparency and concern for the people.”

There’s tremendous work to be done. But meanwhile, there’s the frightening picture concerning the “complex, immense … deeply rooted” education crisis cited by the Second Congressional Commission on Education early this year, what the Inquirer columnist Edilberto de Jesus described as “a massive education failure for which no one appears accountable.”

Read more: Marcos-Duterte bickering is ‘all politics’ from which nothing can be gained, says Drilon

The post Sara Duterte’s breakaway appeared first on CoverStory.

Citing “personal reasons,” Cruz resigned as FDCP chair early this month after one year and eight months of service. His replacement will cover his term remainder of one year and four months. 

Cruz said that before his resignation, he submitted for the Palace’s consideration a list of candidates for the chairmanship of the council. The list includes independent filmmaker Rica Arevalo, who is serving as officer in charge as of this writing, and film director Jose Javier Reyes, who was Cruz’s technical adviser.

“I heard from Malacañang sources that the President has chosen a new chairman,” Cruz said. “I am not sure if the appointment paper has already been signed, and why it has not been signed.”

Enslaved to money

In a casual conversation with this writer on the set of a new drama series he is doing for ABS-CBN, Cruz said his salary as a government employee, albeit as head of an agency, is not enough to ensure the comfortable life he wants for his family. He jokingly described himself as enslaved to money: “Alipin ako ng salapi.” 

Turning serious, he said that he identifies as an actor, and that acting is what he is good at and what he really wants to do.

He said he had had to turn down several film projects that required him to be absent from work. “I didn’t want to short-change the government. While probably I could do management work while on the set, it was still not the same as being in the office with the staff to attend to daily operations,” he said. 

Cruz’s predecessor at the FDCP chair was Liza Diño, a former beauty queen and actress, who served for two terms (or six years) under the previous administration. 

Financial support

During his term, the FDCP “managed to increase financial support to our various stakeholders—from producers, directors, film workers, and students, to the film labs, workshops and film festival assistance,” Cruz said in a statement issued on his resignation. He said the council “continued partnerships with film exhibitors, institutions, festivals and embassies to bring Philippine cinema to the world and the local audience back to the cinemas.”

The FDCP awarded P1 million each to the 10 entries to the independent film festival Cinemalaya, and eventually increased the grant to P2 million each. It also initiated Sine 50, which offered local and international award-winning films for P50 admission tickets in selected cinemas. 

Prior to his resignation, Cruz was in a series of talks with local executives for the grant of a three-year moratorium on the collection of entertainment tax. He said the moratorium would help lower the price of movie tickets to make these more affordable to the public. 

Cruz believes that the only way to keep the film industry alive is to entice the movie-going public back to the cinemas. “That means improving our storytelling and making admission [to cinemas] affordable,” he said.
Currently, Cruz is out of town for the filming of his new teleserye. “I will continue to support the Philippine film industry as an actor and as a private citizen,” he said.

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