When former President Rodrigo (Digong) Duterte visited China, he was offered heaven and earth just to become a Chinese puppet. Most of China’s promises were never fulfilled to this day.

Media, traditional and socmed, international and local, have exposed the no-longer-a-secret alliance between China and Sara, the new emerging puppet replacing her father, who is now in ICC detention.

China will manipulate the Philippine elections and fund the installation of Sara as their new puppet. This will ensure Sara of unlimited campaign funds over and above the confidential funds she has not accounted for.

The power of Sara to ensure her election victory was actually achieved through Digong without him knowing it. Digong achieved total control over the Supreme Court and the Comelec through political appointments. The Supreme Court would ensure anti-Duterte decisions are squashed and pro-Duterte decisions approved. The Comelec would take care of manipulating the election results.

Fortunately, there was a blessing in disguise — GMA was able to convince Sara to run for Vice President, letting PBBM take the helm. It was too premature for Sara to shoot for the presidency. That was perhaps the logic behind GMA convincing Sara to go for the vice presidency, to which she gladly agreed.

Geopolitical implications of Sara as a Chinese puppet

What are the deep geopolitical implications of Sara as the next president? Reviewing Digong’s reign as a puppet will give us some idea but not all the answers. First, he supported China’s ignoring the Hague decision that the West Philippine Sea (WPS) was part of the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone. Digong’s logic was simple: China is too big for the tiny Philippines to fight.

So, China had a field day in the WPS harassing the Philippine Coast Guard and the Filipino fishermen, using water cannons and lasers, imposing a food blockade to starve the fishermen.

But it did not work for two reasons. First, the Filipino strategy was simple. In the absence of direct confrontation against a superior enemy, we simply documented all their atrocities, which went viral on the internet for the whole world to see. Thus, China “lost face” before the world community. The impact was described by foreign media as remarkable.

With Sara as its puppet, China will become braver and assert itself in the WPS with no expected protest from her if she becomes president. In fact, China can author the new laws Sara can feed to the controlled Congress to legitimize or at least look away as China intensifies its activities in the WPS. Sara can secretly tell the Philippine Coast Guard to stand down. There are many other strategies, legal or naval, that Sara and China can cook up.

The WPS is the tip of the iceberg in China’s overall goals in the Philippines. The most damaging was the entry of the Chinese mafia, with connections to the Chinese government, and the entry of millions of Chinese infiltrating the exclusive subdivisions of the rich during Digong’s reign. This will intensify again under Sara.

Opposing Sara’s ascendancy

There is a new force emerging, led by the Gen Z, those born between 1990 and 2010, who are extremely united and organized, and who are part of the global protests against corruption. This new force has alliances with other resilient anti-corruption groups in other countries. This ensures total international support, which is a new critical development.

Gen Z is supported by equally powerful anti-Duterte solons, retired generals, and a Church hesitant to meddle in politics.

We are at the crossroads of a “war” between the two giant forces. It is critical to counter this China-Sara alliance which has unlimited funds, and which affects our lives directly, especially the poor, with their sinister self-serving policies.

The only way to go is to unite and act together.

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