“I am Sara Duterte and I am running for president of the Philippines.”

It had the tone of someone announcing the building will be fumigated.

Not asking. Informing. Very “this is happening to you.” Very PAGASA announcing a typhoon, “expect impact by 2028.” Felt less like good news and more like you moved the sofa upstairs.

The line skips the part where voters exist. It’s amazing how four seconds can feel like a takeover. Not “let me earn it,” more “it’s my turn, adjust.”

“My life was never meant to be mine.”

What the — ? Excuse me?

Ma’am. We just met.

That’s first-date intensity at Mang Inasal-before-the-halo-halo level. That’s “I’ve already told my family about us” while we’re still deciding who pays.

When a candidate says their life belongs to the country, it’s meant to sound selfless. Why do we feel cornered?

Nothing makes you want to run faster than someone saying their life belongs to you. We support the country. We did not sign up to be legally responsible for your destiny.

Destiny doesn’t lower rice prices, but it’s very powerful. It’s very convenient. If you win, destiny; when 2022 backfired, mysterious ways. Nothing is scarier than a candidate who thinks the outcome is holy.

“Today, I have peacefully accepted that my life is unlike any other.”

We prefer presidents who believe they’re ordinary employees. Replaceable. Slightly afraid of the audit.

When someone declares they’re unlike anyone else, you start wondering if they also think rules are unlike for anyone else.

The grand gesture: “I offer my life.” The presidency is not about inserting your life into the job as much as subtracting it. We don’t need the family saga, and a network and dossier of who hurt you.

Because if that life lately has involved betrayal, impeachment, ICC, counter-strikes, unfinished business, you just offered us six more years of it. Six years is a long time to settle scores. Very short time to fix a country.

If Sara Duterte is the future, why doesn’t the present sparkle? If the Vice President’s office was too small, why didn’t it look big? Great leaders can make the barangay look like Malacañang. Did we see that?

You don’t get to midwife the administration and then act surprised at the baby. You said sorry for letting Bongbong become president. Resurrected the surname that martial law made radioactive: “Well… if Sara’s the running mate…”

And the first Marcos presidency in decades ends with your own father boarding a plane to The Hague. Aww.

You campaigned on unity. UNITY. Capital letters. Asked voters to trust your judgment in 2022. You vouched for the partnership. Stood on stage and said this was the stable choice.

Leadership is judgment under uncertainty. Now you’re asking the same electorate to make another call based on your assessment. If 2022 was the wrong call, why will 2028 be the right one?

Certainty is dangerous. Absolute, spiritual, glowing certainty. We do not need a chosen one. We need someone who wakes up mildly afraid of consequences.