Salva Vida

One fat reason why the current administration’s trust rating is so low is Marcos Jr.’s propensity for saying things that are eventually proven untrue. Everyone knows how the campaign pledge of P20 per kilo rice went — the people are still waiting as we approach his administration’s last two years.

And the pattern continues. Marcos Jr. saying it would not cooperate with the International Criminal Court, then kidnapping former President Duterte and sending him to the Hague; Marcos Jr. saying in 2023 that inflation was manageable at 4.9 percent, when it was actually at 8.7 percent as per official records, a 14-year high; Marcos Jr. saying he had reviewed all 4,000-plus pages of the 2024 General Appropriations Act and there were no insertions, when recent oral arguments before the Supreme Court revealed otherwise.

Then, most recently, Marcos Jr. announcing, with more than a tinge of pride, that the whistleblowing former House member Zaldy Co had been “arrested” in Prague.

The funny thing is, after the initial frenzy, there was total silence. No official confirmation, no photos or videos were forthcoming. It was in the midst of the fog and doubt that the government decided to send a delegation from the Department of Justice (DoJ), led by its Secretary Fredderick Vida no less, to verify what a couple of mid-level embassy personnel could, and usually, do.

Even more hilarious, consider what happened next. When the expensive DoJ delegation finally arrived in the Czech Republic to check (pun totally intended) on the reports of Co’s arrest, they found to their chagrin that Co had already flown the coop, so to speak, having been released a few days after he was accosted at the border, and was now seeking asylum in France.

A flustered Vida, with egg on his face, faced a smirking press in Manila (via teleconferencing from Prague) and made up some cock-and–bull story as to why Co had disappeared and could not be repatriated, mainly blaming European laws and policies.

In an attempt to save his DoJ secretary from further embarrassment, a similarly embarrassed President — having been made a figure of fun for his fake news — hastily summoned both the Czech and French ambassadors for an explanation, only to be told: “Sorry, Mr. President, we are constrained by our nation’s laws from giving out any detailed information about Mr. Co.

It couldn’t have been written any funnier by the late Rob Reiner. Imagine a President precipitately announcing a fugitive to have been arrested — and getting no feedback as to whether it was true or not — assembling a team to travel halfway around the world, and upon arriving there, being told that the fugitive was no longer around but was already in Paris.

More mirth-inducing is that, in trying to salvage the situation, he called the envoys of the two countries concerned to try to squeeze out an excuse, only to get none because of their refusal to talk. A classic comedy of errors, made worse by trying to save Secretary Vida.

Well, nice try, but no cigar. Operation Salva Vida (Save Vida) was a failure, as all efforts to get Zaldy Co were undoubtedly, irretrievably sunk and drowned.