Tuesday, 14 July 2026
Nasdaq +0.82%
Subscribe NowSupport Us

Daily TribuneDaily TribuneDaily Tribune

Daily TribuneDaily TribuneDaily Tribune
Subscribe
Tuesday, 14 July 2026
  • News
  • Commentary
  • Business
  • Life
  • Show
  • Sports
  • Global Goals
Partner feature
Daily TribuneDaily Tribune

The Philippines' leading digital newspaper.

News
  • Headlines
  • Page three
  • Metro
  • Nation
  • World
  • Dyaryo Tirada
  • Obituary (Remember Me)
Commentary
  • Columnists
  • Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Scuttlebutt
  • Letter to the Editor
Business
  • Shipping
  • Portraits
  • Pep
  • Business Advisories
  • Technology (Tech Talks)
Life
  • Show
  • Food & Drink
  • Getaways
  • Arts & Culture
  • Social Set
  • Spaces
  • Fashion & Beauty
  • The Edit
  • Top Form
  • Next Gen
  • Sacred Space
  • Project Larawan
  • Snaps
Sports
  • Hoops
  • Volley
  • Golf
  • Goal
  • Boxing
  • Tennis
  • Esports
  • Blast

Company

  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Privacy
  • Subscribe
  • Support Us

© 2026 Daily Tribune · tribune.net.ph · Powered by Quintype

OPINION

Can’t beat her, shame her

Chiz leans over very calm, constitutional, very aware Heart is watching: Can we establish the chain of custody of the underwear?

Vernon Velasco·14 July 2026, 10:29 pm·1 min read

Text size

Share

Partner feature

Suggested Articles

Direct, indirect
OPINION

Direct, indirect

A brilliant direct examination makes the VP look like a sympathetic leader caught in a political witch hunt. A…

Jose Dominic F. Clavano IV·14 July 2026

White hair standing at attention
OPINION

White hair standing at attention

Sometimes even the routines that have seen me through decades get to me now. Perhaps there is more to this than aging…

Dinah S. Ventura·14 July 2026

Magic Mike
SPORTS

Magic Mike

Where is Mike Phillips, the country’s most coveted amateur player?

Julius Manicad·13 July 2026

Restoring media trust
OPINION

Restoring media trust

Increasingly, many people perceive mainstream media as being too closely aligned with political and economic power.

Jess Varela·13 July 2026

Xian Lim: Fresh grad, learner forever
LIFE

Xian Lim: Fresh grad, learner forever

Despite his celebrity status, Xian Lim found that the classroom leveled the playing field. No one was ever starstruck…

Edu Jarque·13 July 2026

  • Can’t beat her, shame her

    The impeachment trial against Vice President Sara Duterte continues on its fifth day, on Tuesday, 14 July, 2026 in Pasay City.| Aram Lascano, Senate Press Photographers' POOL

    Partner feature

    Read next

    Financial education begins at home, not on social media

    Financial education begins at home, not on social media

    What's your take?

    Share

    Google Preferred Sources

    Get more Daily Tribune stories in your search results

    Add Daily Tribune as a preferred source on Google Search.

    Add to Google

    Continue reading

    • Philippines’ UMIC label: A prosperity mirage?
      Philippines’ UMIC label: A prosperity mirage?
    • HoA issues
      HoA issues
    • Three empty chairs and the weight of a nation
      Three empty chairs and the weight of a nation
    Partner feature

    This impeachment. Sara isn’t even there. She’s not there! Why would she be?

    They don’t have 16 senators.

    They know it. We know it. Even the senators pretending to be undecided know it. They could bring in the murder weapon, this victim Bongbong, they could bring in three more NBI agents, Mary Grace Piattos. The prosecution may prove she was reckless, secretive, wildly unpresidential, then discover that none of those words automatically add up to 16.

    So why attend? Why hold a trial at all?

    This is not about getting a guilty verdict anymore. That mountain is too high. Very steep.

    They’re not really trying to remove Sara from office. What they’re doing is airport customs.

    You know airport customs. No privacy whatsoever. They open your suitcase in front of everybody. They pull out your clothes. They hold up your underwear.

    Then Attorney Ligutan shoots up. Very serious. Nosy like you wouldn’t believe.

    “Your honors, this underwear reveals a deeply disturbing pattern.”

    The defense goes crazy.

    “Objection! Those holes have never been authenticated!”

    Ligutan points.

    “The left hole, your honors. Please observe the left hole.”

    The defense screams, “There is no evidence that this is the original hole!”

    Now everybody is discussing the hole. No one knows why. Nobody remembers the impeachable charge. Is this a grave threat? Is this sedition? Is this Hanes?

    Chiz leans over very calm, constitutional, very aware Heart is watching: “Can we establish the chain of custody of the underwear?”

    Now they want to know if it was washed. Who washed it? When was it washed? Was fabric softener used? Were confidential funds used to buy the detergent? Was the detergent properly liquidated?

    Then the prosecution brings out the faded undies.

    My God.

    A terrible undies. It is tired. It is exhausted. The underwire has the same fighting spirit as Ligutan. It refuses to quit: “Can the witness identify this undies?”

    The defense objects before he can even finish.

    “Leading!”

    “Argumentative!”

    “Calls for speculation!”

    Chiz sighs.

    The prosecution raises it higher.

    “Your honors.”

    The defense is now collapsing.

    “Objection! The undies is irrelevant!”

    That’s the case. You don’t have to prove anything. You just keep pulling things out.

    “Ladies and gentlemen, what do you make of this sock? Smells funny, right?”

    The Senate may never find her guilty. The prosecution only needs the country to find her embarrassing.

    Because the grave threat allegation is that Sara Duterte supposedly arranged for a killer to go after the President.

    Serious charge.

    But are they trying her for the threat they say she made, or for the threat they are afraid she still poses?

    Like winning in 2028?

    If the case is really about betrayal of public trust, then let the public judge that trust at the ballot box. Perhaps that is exactly the problem.

    They may be less afraid that she hired a killer than that millions of voters might, after all, still hire her.

    Also read

    Too crazy to convict
    OPINION

    Too crazy to convict

    There’s your grand criminal conspiracy: put a camera in front of a politician and suddenly they become 10 feet tall and half insane.

    Vernon Velasco·7 July 2026

    Also read

    The Zuleika Defense
    EDITORIAL

    The Zuleika Defense

    Even a mother hen will threaten the predator. Does that mean the hen hired a hitman?

    DT·8 July 2026