Duterte-Liberal alliance not happening — analyst

The Dutertes having a unified ticket with the traditional opposition Liberal Party (LP) is unlikely, a political analyst said Sunday.

Julio Teehankee, a political science and international studies professor at De La Salle University, explained that the LP and the Dutertes have divergent narratives and policy positions, making a unified front challenging.

“Ironically, the BBM administration and the traditional mainstream opposition have more common ground,” he added, referring to the administration of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.

This common ground, he said, includes foreign policy and geopolitical stances, especially concerning issues in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) and the International Criminal Court’s investigation into the extrajudicial killings during Rodrigo Duterte’s administration.

“It seems hard to imagine that the Marcos camp will join forces with the traditional opposition, but of course, strange things happen,” Teehankee commented.

Former President Rodrigo Duterte and his allies have vocally criticized the Marcos administration’s policies on the WPS and have opposed the moves for Charter change pushed by Marcos’ supporters in Congress.

Speculation about a rift between Vice President Sara Duterte and President Marcos intensified after she resigned from her roles in the Cabinet as Secretary of the Department of Education and Vice-Chair of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict.

However, Vice President Duterte dispelled rumors of discord, stating, “We are still friendly with each other on a personal level.” She added, “I went to President Marcos’ office and told him that I had brought my resignation letter. He received it, and our conversation ended well.”

Duterte announced her resignation last Wednesday, nearly two years after leading the agencies. Her departure led former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque to suggest she might become the new opposition leader.

Albay Representative Edcel Lagman, president of the LP, acknowledged the possibility of Duterte assuming a leadership role in the opposition against the Marcos administration but insisted that the LP remains the “ideological and conscientious” opposition to both Marcos and the Dutertes.

“The LP continues to uphold its iconic principles on good governance, participatory democracy, constitutionalism, human rights protection, and anti-authoritarian rule, all of which are not in the track record of the leaders of the now-defunct UniTeam,” Lagman said.