Deflating a spare tire
Sara Duterte’s real offense, in the eyes of many of her supporters, is not that she governs badly. She barely governs at all.
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Sara Duterte’s real offense, in the eyes of many of her supporters, is not that she governs badly. She barely governs at all.
Incredible. It sometimes seems the whole country is now fighting the Vice President: the Senate. The House. Lawyers. The media. Everybody.
And just what is the Vice President’s job?
Wait.
You sit there. Stay alive. Keep the phone nearby. A very important phone. Maybe the most important phone in the country. You hope it never rings.
That’s it.
We are spending millions of pesos a day, they say, trying to remove the backup.
Nobody drives around with the spare tire rolling beside the car. You keep it in the trunk — quiet, covered. Nobody interviews it. Nobody assigns it an army of security personnel.
Something happens, you take it out. Very simple.
Here? We put the spare tire in a giant office. Full display. We give it a staff. A budget. Then everybody acts shocked when the spare tire starts thinking maybe it can drive.
What did you expect?
You gave her 32 million votes, called her the country’s second-highest official, handed her an office, a bureaucracy and six years in office, then expected her to do almost nothing except stare at the President’s chair.
That’s weird. Everybody else gets to do something.
The President signs things. Issues commands. Spends public money. Senators pass laws. Governors govern. Mayors cut ribbons and inaugurate projects.
The Vice President?
Plant a tree. Visit a school. Attend a ceremony. Anything to prove the office exists during ordinary times.
Then people ask, “Why is she acting so important?” Because 32 million people told her she was important.
That’s pressure. Every politician proves success by doing something. The Vice President proves success by doing absolutely nothing.
Nobody dies. Nobody resigns. Nobody is removed.
Congratulations. Excellent veep. Give her a medal.
What’s even more remarkable is that some people appear more obsessed with the next President than the one already in Malacañang.
The country is the car. President Marcos is at the wheel. The road is flooded. The bridge is missing.
The House looks at all of this and says, “We should investigate the spare tire.” Interesting priorities.
President Marcos is governing today. Yet much of the political energy appears focused on the possibility of a future Duterte presidency rather than the performance of the current administration.
That is the paradox.
Critics of Vice President Sara Duterte say she cannot be trusted with the presidency.
Her supporters counter that the impeachment effort is driven as much by politics as by accountability.
That debate is now at the heart of Philippine politics. Future misconduct becomes an emergency. Present performance becomes an argument.
Supporters of the impeachment are correct that the Constitution provides the process. Critics respond that impeachment is also reshaping the succession debate well before the 2028 election.
That perception, whether fair or not, continues to fuel the political divide.
President Marcos comes from a family long associated with allegations of ill-gotten wealth and corruption that have been debated in courts and in public life for decades.
Former First Lady Imelda Marcos was convicted by the Sandiganbayan in 2018 on graft charges, although the case remains on appeal, subject to the legal process.
Against that backdrop, critics question why so much political attention is devoted to preventing a possible future Duterte presidency rather than scrutinizing the performance of the current administration.
Sara Duterte’s real offense, in the eyes of many of her supporters, is not that she governs badly. She barely governs at all.
Her offense is that she might govern next. And that, perhaps more than anything happening today, explains why tomorrow has become the fiercest political battleground.
