Category: marcos

Imee’s last-ditch effort for Duterte

After the initial shock of seeing, hearing, Imee Marcos on stage sa INC rally at her dramatic worst yet, publicly lambasting her brother for alleged drug addiction and pleading that he leave public office and seek treatment because she couldn’t bear it if she were to lose him…. I could only marvel at the desperation — ang lalim, at ang haba, ng hugot, harking all the way back to martial law and metrocom times, which only reminded of Archimedes Trajano, doesn’t she realize?!?

Like Philippine Star editor Amy Pamintuan, I have yet to see PBBM acting or looking like he was high or stoned in any of his televised appearances.

AMY: … I learned to spot people high on drugs, or who were addicted. The habit takes a visible toll on the body. So far, I haven’t seen either BBM or his wife in a public engagement with bloodshot eyes or looking, talking or behaving like they’re high on drugs. https://www.philstar.com/

On the other hand, I certainly have memories of the former President Rodrigo Duterte stumbling, talking weird, looking half-asleep, barely paying attention, like he was high or stoned on something or other, remember? even if DDS propagandists seem to have forgotten, deliberately, as if the current mess only started with BBM and it’s all his fault, the floods, the corruption, the economic crisis. As though Duterte never happened.

And yet I have no doubt that Imee’s meltdown is Duterte-related. Matagal na siyang kinukulit ng mga DDS to confirm the “vangag” allegations, thinking that it would be enough to inflame a critical mass that could compel BBM to step down, especially since the “kidnap” and rendition of Duterte to The Hague. Marami ring nagalit sa kanya because she wouldn’t do it, and I actually thought she never would because, you know, family — blood is thicker than water and all that.

But now that she has given in, spoken out, what flashed through my mind was a VP Sara speech back in June, noong bitbit niya si Imee kung saan-saan, Qatar, The Hague, and finally Malaysia, addressing OFWs and referring to Imee as her “hostage”.

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte has challenged Sen. Imee Marcos to bring Rodrigo Duterte back to the Philippines, noting that it was the senator’s brother, President Marcos, who had ordered the former president arrested and turned over to the Interpol and the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“I always invite Senator Marcos wherever I go. I brought her along because I told her, it would not be me who will bring former president Duterte back to the Philippines because it was your brother who sent him to The Hague. You should bring him [home] to the Philippines,” the Vice President said in her speech during the 127th Independence Day celebration in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The Vice President said Imee will remain as her “hostage” until her father is released. https://www.philstar.com/headlines/

It’s been eight months since Digong was arrested and detained in the Hague, and there doesn’t seem to be much hope left of a homecoming. Kaufman has been doing what he can to delay the confirmation of charges, from interim-release request to lack-of-jurisdiction challenge, and lately the mental-unfitness claim which, even if proven true, won’t mean Digong would be released just like that. He would remain in custody, undergo treatment, and every 120 days he’d be tested again, and again, just in case his mental unfitness is temporary, or something like that. https://www.abs-cbn.com/

Back in August, Kaufman was also wanting to speak with PBBM about negotiating the return of Duterte to the Philippines. The thinking seems to be that PBBM, if he cared to, could prevail on the ICC to let him take custody of Digong, and let Philippine courts hear and decide the cases against him and his accomplices. But because PBBM won’t play along, their only recourse is to  remove him somehow and install Sara in the Palace, from which vantage point she could try her damndest to harass the ICC into releasing Digong, maybe with the help of tyrants Trump and Netanyahu.

In fairness, Imee for her part did hold those Senate hearings on the irregularities attending Duterte’s arrest, and then there was that Senate resolution relayed to the ICC requesting house arrest for the former president due to health and age concerns. But all ineffectual, as in, walang epek. She must have been under pressure to do something more, try harder.

Then came the flood-control corruption scandal. Parang heaven-sent siguro, the chance to charge BBM himself for corruption, and Zaldy proved to be the willing balimbing but his paputok videos proved to be duds, raising more questions than answers. Imee had no choice but to step up, give it her best shot, while the INC JIL KOJC UPI DDS peeps were still out in the streets, maybe get them sad angry agitated enough… except that INC cut short the protest rally after her speech and sent the people home instead.

Bottom line, Imee did it not out of love for country or family, rather, out of utang-na-loob kay Digong for the Libingan ng mga Bayani favor, which happened almost exactly nine years ago, she managed to remind in that very disjointed overwrought speech. So, yes, yun pa rin ang puno’t dulo, the hero’s burial, which makes me wonder if it was worth it. What if they had settled for an Ilocos burial instead. Then Sara would not be holding Imee hostage.

Firing Torre

Read “Big questions on Torre’s ouster” by lawyer Joel Ruiz Butuyan.

A reading of the laws governing the Napolcom (Republic Act No. 6975 as amended by RA 8551) does not show that Napolcom possesses the power to review and overturn the PNP chief’s assignment of police generals to top brass positions, as claimed by the agency. The powers of Napolcom are primarily for “policy and program coordination” and administrative disciplinary proceedings against erring police officers. Its “administrative control and operational supervision” over the PNP are clearly for the limited purpose of developing policies and promulgating rules and regulations,” which do not include the power to review and reverse designation or transfer of officers made by the PNP chief to high-ranking positions occupied by colonels to generals, contrary to Napolcom’s claim.

… However, the President’s decision to remove Torre as PNP chief is valid because the President has absolute discretion to appoint and remove the PNP chief. But there are big and gnawing questions: Was the President misled into believing that Napolcom possesses the power to review and overturn the PNP chief’s designation of top officers, and that Torre blatantly violated the agency’s exercise of its powers? Did Napolcom overturn Torre’s reassignment of officers upon direct orders of the President?

Makes you wonder what’s really going on and if there’s any truth to The PH Insider story shared by MaxDefense Philippines on Facebook that Torre’s sudden removal has to do with his “refusal to sign a Request for Endorsement and Budget Support to Congress for an additional Php8 billion funding for the PNP for the acquisition of 80,000 units 5.56mm assault rifles for FY2026”?

The justification for such acquisition was said to be due to the PNP now focused on taking-over internal security operations from the Armed Forces of the Philippines, in which the PNP currently has capability gaps in terms of many aspects including firepower, and that its current inventory of rifles are insufficient.

The report said Gen. Torre refused to sign as he believe the acquisition is excessive for a civilian agency like the PNP, which had him in disagreement with Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Sec. Jonvic Remulla.

Meanwhile the DDS are on celebratory mode, which makes you wonder if firing Gen. Torre is some kind of concession to the Duterte camp that heartily hates the fired PNP Chief for the Quiboloy and Digong arrests.

REGINE CABATO:
Facebook 26 August 

The DDS are having a field day with news of police chief Nicholas Torre’s dismissal. My disinformation-related take: Not only does it send mixed signals about the Marcos administration’s commitment to human rights-related reform, but they have also thrown to the trolls one of its most high profile officials capable of tackling the pro-Duterte disinformation machine.

Just last week, Torre exposed an organized smear campaign against the police. He pointed to a coordinated attempt among DDS vloggers spreading viral video to depict “lawlessness” in the Philippines. But these videos were from Indonesia and Vietnam, and the one video from the Philippines was taken out of context. What does this mean? There is an organized attempt to make crime in the Philippines look worse than it actually is, all toward: 1) campaigning for a Duterte return to power, and 2) spreading the ideology of killing, as opposed to reform, as a solution for crime.

Torre’s publicity stunt against Baste Duterte last month was another rare moment: he was seen as standing up to a bully, successfully fundraised some PhP 20 million for flood victims, and won some amor among soft Duterte supporters. (I’ve seen comments going: ‘I’m a DDS, but Baste was wrong this time…’)

Torre has proven himself to not only be efficient in tasks that few others would have gamely executed — particularly the arrests of Duterte and Quiboloy — but in a skill so many of our public figures lack: seizing the narrative in a Duterte-driven information ecosystem.

He turns defense into offense, and it sends DDS trolls scrambling, which is why they dedicate so much of their time making transphobic video reels that liken Torre to social media influencer Diwata, in an attempt to emasculate and undermine him. The flooding of laugh news reactions on news items about his dismissal, and the gleeful comment of senator Imee Marcos about karma, show that the Duterte disinformation machine does not rest.

Torre being out of the way after pushing for the takedown of 1,000 fake news posts allows the Duterte machine to recuperate, and the curtly worded dismissal letter gives trolls and vloggers another bullet for their smear campaign. This also raises questions about whether the next police chief will make similar commitments to information integrity among and affecting its ranks.

The smear campaign against Torre should not be taken in isolation: it is part of broader smear against career officials in law enforcement, including the military and coast guard, because the DDS machinery wants Duterte loyalists in these positions instead. The script against Torre is also being levelled against AFP chief Romeo Brawner, PCG spokesman Jay Tarriela, and so on. This script includes accusing them of being foreign hacks or sympathizers, using distraction to undermine reform, and it comes from the same influencer talking heads of the DDS sphere. The accusation that Torre, et al are ICC or U.S. puppets is especially hypocritical and ironic, given that these pro-Duterte networks have been found to have ties to China.

These DDS online reactions are not, of course, a clear indicator of the true pulse of public opinion. But they are an indicator that Marcos is losing the optics war.

 

SONA in the time of multiple distractions and woes

A comprehensive situationer on the eve of BBM’s 4th SONA from my favorite Manila Times columnist —  a farmer and a thinker who doesn’t shoot from the hip. 

By Marlen V. Ronquillo

TRADITION dictates that the spotlight should be trained on the president, and the president alone, not only during the State of the Nation Address (SONA) — to take place tomorrow, July 28 — but also days before, during preparations for the annual event. But the Dutertes, former allies of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., are not bound by this tradition and will say anything, fair or foul, to divert the nation’s attention from him. Inviolable political traditions are apparently not part of the Dutertes’ dictionary.

Vice President Sara Duterte, who is facing impeachment charges over her alleged failure to conform to basic ledger and accounting practices and to get the names of her spending recipients right, delved into the more complex field of water science — hydrology — a tortured claim that was instantly mocked by Claire Castro, Malacañang’s fierce spokesman, who herself may not have any grounding on water science. You think of Castro in these terms: as loyal to President Marcos as Steven Cheung is to United States President Donald Trump. Their principals never err.

After the vice president ventured into a rigid field of specialization that was definitely beyond her intellectual reach, her younger brother, Davao City’s Acting Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte, did the Act 11 — something that was also beyond the bounds of normal political behavior — challenging Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Nicolas Torre III to a boxing match.

If Baste’s intent was to distract Torre from what he was supposed to do, which was to prepare PNP field men for security work at the SONA, it did not work. Torre said yes to the challenge, set a date for it and even injected a sense of nobility into the younger Duterte’s grotesque behavior. Let us do a charity boxing match, with the proceeds going to those affected by the recent storms, Torre proposed.

Baste, for one reason or another, made a demand before accepting the challenge: a drug test for President Marcos, which was off-tangent to his original challenge and a sign of him clearly chickening out. Baste probably saw videos of Torre’s multiple push-ups and preparation for the match.

Was it broadcaster Waldy Carbonell who said the Dutertes do not really like fair fights? Even with the Dutertes’ showboating deflated by the President’s subalterns, multiple woes on several fronts will still be the gloomy backdrop of the SONA speech tomorrow. Days of incessant rains induced by Severe Tropical Storm Crising and Typhoon Emong — a months’ worth, weather experts say — overwhelmed the three regions that contribute 60 to 70 percent of the Philippines’ yearly economic output. Many parts of Metro Manila, Southern Luzon and Central Luzon were forced to declare a state of calamity due to the flooding the rains caused.

Television news vividly captured the anguish of people in the flooded areas: the dead bodies, the crowded evacuation centers, the long lines for relief goods, the low-lying residential areas that were turned into “Waterworld” overnight, and the creaky dams.

The other casualties, far from the media loop, were unreported. Near the field where I planted Napier grass for animal feed, the “sabog-tanim” of my neighboring rice farmer was inundated, the days-old rice sprouts swept into many directions. The “labanderas,” the ice cream vendors, the hollow-block makers and all the marginal workers who need the sun to ply their trade were in a state of both grief and paralysis.

All those who farmed know this: after a week or two of continuous rains, cash crops like “ampalaya” (bitter gourd) will wither and die after being exposed to only a week of harsh sunshine. My farmer-neighbor with the goner sabog-tanim also planted plots of bitter gourd and string beans. I do not know where he would get his next sustenance post-Crising and Emong. And how many small farmers across Central Luzon are in the same prostrate state? President Marcos will deliver his SONA amid a discouraging international context: the greatest trade shock in recent history that was the result of Trump’s unilateral imposition of punitive tariffs on trading partners, big and small. The President recently met with Trump to negotiate for a lower tariff. Trump responded with a 1-percent reduction of his earlier 20-percent tariff on Philippine goods shipped to the US — a clear “consuelo de bobo” — in exchange for zero tariffs on US goods shipped to our country.

The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and almost all multilateral institutions have predicted slower global economic growth this year, next year and in 2027 after that without directly blaming the real culprit: the punitive tariffs that have disrupted a stable global trading order since World War II. The Philippines, the multilaterals said, will also fail to meet its growth target.

China and the European Union, with their sizable economies, can probably work their way around the tariffs and survive even without US trade. The Philippines and other smaller economies may just have to wait for Trump’s exit from office, which is more than three years away. Meanwhile, they have to live with the tariff-induced lumps and bumps.

I do not know how the people in Malacañang can spin a hopeful and forward-looking SONA with the domestic and international backdrop both gloomy and discouraging. Maybe they can borrow from the Duterte playbook, which is this: don’t let the facts get into the way of a triumphant SONA.

Palpak DDS propaganda

Dahil Digong is detained in The Hague, and Sara is up for an impeachment trial here, and desperate ang mga DDS to bring Digong home AND to get the VP’s mpeachment case dismissed, they pounce on every opportunity to paint BBM as an incompetent leader who deserves to be ousted and replaced by the VP, now na. They’re also not beyond pouncing on the First Lady every chance they get, as in the Tantoco case. This, as the Ph Coast Guard is making suyod Taal Lake for the remains of e-sabungeros who went missing under Digong’s watch.  Distracting us much?

Duterte propagandists eating up the dead: The worst of political discourse
Katrina Stuart Santiago
VeraFiles.Org

What is the size of a controversy? And how is a story magnified, amplified, expanded at this time when anyone at all can manufacture digital noise, generate so much content that it will make it to our newsfeeds despite our algorithmic bubbles?

The Rodrigo Duterte presidency was a grand display of how government propagandists could make mountains out of molehills, be it about the purported achievements of their beloved president, or about his declared political enemies. We now know what it takes to keep any narrative going, where content is constantly and consistently generated to feed it, to repeat what is being said, until it starts moving on its own. Case in point: the criticism against the elite, the label of dilawan, the terrorista-komunista tag, and even, the label bobotante.

This, to me, is how we know for sure that even the worst, most baseless false narratives, when un-addressed and un-dealt with, can and will fester. To the point that there is no curing it—not with the truth, and certainly not with the tools that are familiar.

The Anti-First Lady trip

Duterte propagandists have always had it in for First Lady Liza Marcos, a project that has been helped along by both Vice President Sara Duterte’s and the Presidential sister and Senator Imee Marcos’s pronouncements against her.

What happened at the First Lady’s US trip for the Manila International Film Festival (MIFF) in March, as such, from the perspective of the Duterte propagandists, is an opportunity to hit the First Lady harder than they ever have. Never mind common sense and decency; never mind respect for a family in grief.

As early as March 11, the louder among the Duterte propagandists was already screaming at the top of her lungs about the death of someone from the First Lady’s MIFF entourage. Her unverified tsismis was aplenty: the First Lady was questioned and detained, the group of the FL was “nataranta”, they didn’t report the death until seven hours after, all of this pointing to what she insisted was an effort to cover up the death.

Part of this story was repeated by Vice President Sara Duterte in May, during the electoral campaign, where she connects this narrative about the First Lady being detained to the arrest of Rodrigo Duterte by the International Criminal Court (ICC). On May 5 2025 the Vice President claimed:

Noong nagkaroon ng malaking krimen sa Estados Unidos na mayroong namatay dahil sa drug overdose at kung makikita ninyo sa police report ay nandoon ang pangalan ni First Lady Liza Marcos. Noong nagkaroon ng drug overdose at mayroong namatay sa Amerika at nandoon sa loob ng kwarto si First Lady Liza Marcos at nandoon sa police report, cocaine ‘yong sinasabing nagkalat doon sa kuwarto na ‘yon, ay bigla na lang nila hinila, kindinap, dinukot si Pangulong Duterte.

This narrative that the Vice President weaves is one that has been repeated by Duterte propagandists. It surfaced in response to the fact that while the first tsismis spewed was that the First Lady was detained on March 8, this was easily disproven by the First Lady’s official accounts, among many others: during the day she is seen with members of the Philippine Consulate General in Los Angeles, and in the afternoon and evening at the MIFF 50: Konsyerto Para sa Filipino at Cerritos Center for Performing Arts in California. She would also be in Manila by March 11, turning over donations to the Girl Scouts of the Philippines.

But being disproven by facts is rarely the end for these narratives, dependent as these are on insinuations and possibilities, mostly maliciously articulated. Once the detention was disproven, it was only a matter of time before they came up with a new way to spin the narrative—because again, the goal is to keep it going. And going.

Unknotting the narrative

On rotation on Duterte social media algorithms has been a police report with margins in pink. At the bottom of it is what the Duterte propagandists have used to drive a knife through the First Lady’s narrative: her name along with two others, calling her a “companion of the victim” who is “summoned for questioning.”

The Palace, through its Spokesperson Claire Castro, has called this bottom section of that document “fake”, saying that it was added to the original document which only details what had happened to Mr. Tantoco.

The Duterte propagandists, of course, will not have any of it. For one, they insist this is a matter of public interest, that someone who they claim was part of the First Lady’s entourage died of a drug overdose. For another, they insist that since public funds were used for this MIFF project and trip, that they—and we—have the right to ask about what unfolded, especially given what they claim to be a “big deal”.

The reasoning behind thinking this “a big deal” is different for all of them. For the noisiest and crassest among them, protected as she is by being in America, she claims that this is proof of a government being run like a drug syndicate, and we should all be angrily standing with her in her battle against it. For the ones who are in the Philippines and already at risk of being sued for libel and defamation, they insinuate that the fact that the First Lady evaded questioning gives the US leverage against us.

If these are far-fetched and out of this world, that is precisely the point I am making here. It is as absurd as the connection the Vice President has made between the Tantoco death and the arrest of her father, which implicates the First Lady in both.

At the heart of all of this is the worn-out and disproven yet sustained baseless insistence that the President is a cocaine addict. This is the bigger narrative that this smaller story about the First Lady sustains; this is the larger claim that these smaller stories are supposed to buttress. In the same way that these are sustained by a Harry Roque creating dance steps to the “bangag” song that is now on its nth iteration; in the same way that this is sustained by the worst of political discourse that seems to gleefully celebrate the death of a person, because it is a means to the end they’ve been working towards.

It is why it’s important that when we engage with stories such as this one, we contextualize it in how it’s been sustained by the Duterte side all this time; because the last thing we want to do is to encourage these narratives and layer it with our own sense-making. Yes, we can be critical of the Marcos government, but goodness gracious, we certainly can do it better than the best of the Duterte propagandists.

Accidents, propriety, sobriety

It was on March 11 2025 that the Philippine Consulate General posted a statement on the death of Mr. Juan Paolo Tantoco, the same day the family would officially make its announcement. On July 13 2025, the LA County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office report would be released online about Tantoco’s death, which is why we are speaking about it at all.

Duterte propagandists will insist this is a big deal and spew a whole lot of questions that they insist deserve answers. Yet, even on the surface, all of this makes sense.

Tantoco was obviously plus-one to his wife, who was on official duty as Deputy Social Secretary. As one who has been plus-one on low-key small-scale government-funded trips, this to me always means that I will spend for my own expenses, including flights, hotel room additions (if you’re staying in the same room), and meals. This also means that you are not tied to the itinerary or schedule of the delegation.

Given who Tantoco is, it seems safe enough to presume that he didn’t spend a cent of public funds to make this trip.

And let’s say that he was, in fact, seen at some of the parties related to MIFF—wouldn’t that have been simply his right, given that he is also a taxpayer whose taxes paid for that dinner? That is how I would rationalize my own meals were it given to me as plus-one.

Being plus-one also means that you are extraneous to the official delegation; you can decide freely what to do with your time, and you can engage in activities that are solely yours. What happened to Tantoco on March 8 was solely his and his wife’s business. That his wife might have been on official duty as Deputy Social Secretary doesn’t make this any more a public matter than if the accident happened in Manila, while the wife was working in Malacañang.

That the First Lady would carry on with her activities on March 8, despite the death of her Deputy Social Secretary’s husband, is also as expected. She needed to keep to her schedule and keep up appearances, if only to give the family time and space to inform children and elders, put affairs in order, and address the situation calmly, properly, and with as much clarity as possible.

This is what decency and propriety teach us to do. This is what pakikiramay means. If that is something we cannot even see anymore as valid, if it is something that we must question, then that says more about those asking these questions than it does about the First Lady.

What might in fact be truly controversial is the fact that we have a Vice President drawing far-fetched connections in the way her father did to justify his slapshod leadership, and a Presidential sister and Senator demanding that government violate the Tantocos’ right to privacy to feed the monster that is Duterte propaganda.

What is a big deal is that we are at a point where we cannot tell the difference anymore between irresponsible, unjust, baseless commentary that should be shut down at scale, and the kind of political discourse this democracy urgently needs.