Beginning of the end of a Manchurian candidate

An excerpt from an open letter of Lorenzo Legarda, youngest son of Sen. Loren Legarda, following her decision to run for reelection in 2022 under the Bongbong Marcos-Sara Duterte ticket, said: "I must choose the option to freely pronounce that I am disturbed by my mom and what she has chosen to do. It nauseates me and makes me want to die. I want everybody to realize that Loren Legarda lost her child always along these lines. Paint her dazzling red with that disgrace. Try not to allow her to fail to remember it. In the expressions of an insightful lady: I didn't know her … For her, it is only some other political decision year, ready for the typical fainthearted, advantageous advantage. There is no comprehension that another Marcos administration would spell almost certain doom for everything in the Philippines. The finish of history, ang hangganan ng kasaysayan."

Read that again:" Paint her with dazzling red with that disgrace."

At the time Lorenzo wrote that line, it was almost cryptic.

However, with Legarda's declaration that she had worked with the National Democratic Front, Lorenzo's letter is fraught with meaning.

For instance: "Another Marcos administration would spell almost certain doom for everything in the Philippines."

Is Lorenzo warning us of an apocalyptic end for the country, because he believes Bongbong Marcos is as fainthearted as his father who will not use force against a Left-inspired pocket rebellion of his fellow Filipinos?

Lorenzo wrote that his mother running again for the Senate is just another "advantageous advantage," and that he is disturbed and nauseated by what she had opted to do.

Lorenzo has left for the United States and, in his own words, "disowned" his mother.

Lorenzo has since been pilloried for his letter, because, whatever reason, no one should speak ill of one's mother, and neither should she be disowned by a son or daughter.

Though many sympathized with Lorenzo, others took the side of Loren, who was no. 2 among the winning senatorial bets.

Barely three months later, however, Sen. Legarda shocked the nation with her revelation that she had worked with communists and that she saw nothing wrong with it.

Ping Lacson, who authored the Anti-Terror Law, rebuffed her.

But the strongest reactions came from the legions who voted for her and felt she had put one over them. "Nabudol", they described themselves.

Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, who had actively supported Legarda in her past political bids, demanded she return her reservist uniform in the Air Force.

The supreme datu of the indigenous tribes in Davao, Datu Joel Unad, declared that not less than 1,000 tribal leaders in Mindanao had been killed by the NPA, yet Legarda never lifted a finger to denounce the carnage.

He said he will ask indigenous people to stop looking up to her as a leader.

In the meantime, Vice President and Education Sec. Sara Duterte has delivered a crisp and clear message: "Our policy against criminals and terrorists and those that support and espouse their ideologies of violence should be hardline. We should show no mercy to criminals and terrorists."

For one who has seen the face of terror, the VP's message is clear and has no room for compromise.

Legarda has dug her own political grave.

The Reserve Officers Legion of the Philippines president Brig. Gen. Leoncio Cirunay said of Legarda: "The corps felt sad for having been deeply cheated upon hearing that she had been working with the communist organization."

General Cirunay revealed they voted for her to be a full-fledged colonel in the reserve corps. He then proceeded with the call to the members of ROLP and the reservists to disown Legarda and requested the Department of National Defense to recommend her decommissioning in the reservist corps of the Philippines.

We now see the beginning of the end of a Manchurian candidate.