The avarice for power

With the 2025 elections just around the bend, the wrecking crew in the House of Romualdez is not wasting time in their derogatory assault on Vice President Inday Sara Duterte.

Sideswiped in the process is citizen Rodrigo Duterte who, in the most recent picture on Meta, was enjoying some durian all by himself.

As it was from the start of their plot to diminish the popularity of the VP and PRRD, the attack dogs are from the moribund leftist partylist representatives and the dyed-in-the-wool disciples of House Speaker Martin Romualdez.

The Speaker himself opened the recent congressional session, this time unleashing bare-fisted snide remarks against the VP. But the most vicious offensive was from a convict and another from a nouveau riche member who has been the subject of critical posts on Facebook.

The Appropriations Committee chaired by Rep. Elizaldy Co, a buddy of Speaker Romualdez, slashed the budget of the Office of the Vice President in an obvious attempt to emasculate the programs and projects of VP Sara.

The plot, however, drew more sympathy for the VP who was busy distributing relief goods to calamity victims, including those from the districts of her malefactors. She may be short of funds but she has innumerable donors who trust her office to see to it that their donations reach those who need them.

Romualdez wanted to eclipse the OVP’s acts of mercy, so he flew to Davao City with his political entourage and under the TV klieg lights distributed “ayuda” and cash to hurriedly convoked “poor” residents of Davao City.

Again, this gesture boomeranged in that critics pointed out that while the destructive floods were inundating the urban center and rural areas of Metro Manila and Luzon, Romualdez was giving away “ayuda” and cash in Davao which had just concluded its Kadayawan Festival in thanksgiving for the bonanza experienced by the city.

The flurry of attacks on Vice President Sara and her father, former President Duterte, will not ebb, instead it will only intensify even beyond the 2025 polls. But the coming election is vital to Romualdez in particular who is not hiding his ambition to become president.

Survey after survey, moreover, show that he is always the laggard. His aim is to consolidate a formidable political organization nationwide in preparation for the presidential derby in 2028. In the process, however, it bleeds an unprogrammed fund portfolio for his “ayudas” and cash gifts.

So who cares if Metro Manila and Luzon are drowning, Davao City, the political turf of Duterte, must be won over at all cost. SMNI has been disenfranchised, Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy is behind bars. An avid Duterte supporter, Spox Harry Roque, is being stripped naked by the grand inquisitors in the House of Romualdez, who cited him in contempt and issued a warrant for his arrest and detention.

It’s all that matters. Whoever came up with this “bright idea” actually fooled Romualdez. If the Speaker is looking for who his enemies are, he need not look far. In the case of the Davao City splurge of a misplaced act of mercy, he may have won a few hundred Davao votes but he lost thousands of votes from flood victims who wished and hoped in vain that they too deserved much-needed aid.

2028 is too far away but legislators in both Houses have their turrets aimed at VP Sara Duterte. Sen. Risa Hontiveros exemplifies their morbid fear when, by sheer garrulity, warns: “While Sara is in power, the threat of a full-blown Duterte comeback is still a very real and present danger.”