I don’t know what it is we still expect from a House of Representatives ruled by Duterte’s people — men and women who have clearly made the decision to follow this President’s every whim, who have sold their souls to this devil of a government that engages in state violence, impunity, and the murder of democracy.

But then again, we should’ve known this was going to happen. After all, we watched Congress Reps up in arms versus the better Duterte appointees, when he still had his head on straight, but had absolutely no control over even his own party-mates — oligarchs, businessmen, miners, landlords — who were threatened by the likes of Gina Lopez, Judy Taguiwalo, and Paeng Mariano in the Cabinet. Even then, for all his tapang Duterte was revealed to be nothing more but a coward: there is no one he can control other than those people he can fire or kill — and Congress Reps aren’t that.

And then there are his children — more people he cannot even control, a son and daughter who do not listen to their father, and who have their own agendas. If there’s anyone putting Duterte to shame (more than his big mouth), it is his own children. 

The coup that was the unseating of Pantaleon Alvarez as House Speaker right before the 2018 State of the Nation Address (SONA) of Duterte was a brazen display of power coming from no one else but the President’s own daughter Sara, later on to be revealed as working in cahoots with Gloria Arroyo — who would be given the House Speakership — and dictator’s daughter Imee Marcos. If you were one of those who might have been suspending judgment about Sara at that time, given that she had been very low-key and careful about how she was operating as presidential daughter, this specific incident should have changed your mind.

After all, there is every reason to question her involvement in the movements in the House of Representatives, mayor as she only is. That she operated this unseating of Alvarez in cooperation with plunderer Arroyo and dictator’s daughter Imee who wasn’t even part of Congress at that time, even more reason to distrust her. This was Sara Duterte throwing her weight around, dipping her hands in a Congress that she had no business in. This was a presidential daughter using her political capital to get someone unseated — someone who was voted into that position — only to put Arroyo who promised to be more loyal. To her father? Or to her? That is the question.

Because what has become clear is that the interests of Duterte’s children are not necessarily in the interests of their father. Case in point: there is every reason for Duterte to be shamed and embarrassed by the moves of his daughter, especially since he at some point admitted that he can’t control Sara.

Unlike Sara though, Paolo Duterte is a Congress Rep, yet another embarrassment for a President who has said time and again that he didn’t want his children to run for positions. Instead all three of them are running Davao with Sebastian now Vice Mayor to Sara’s Mayor, and Paolo the city’s Congress Representative.

But it gets worse. As if knowing his own children’s flagrant disregard for propriety and delicadeza, and just their utter lack of shame, Duterte had said in May 2019, soon after the elections, that if his son dared run for House Speaker, he would resign from the Presidency. Was it a threat issued against his son? Or was it a warning for us all?

Because of course Paolo has done exactly what his father had said: the past week the Congress Rep decided he wants to “unite the House” by throwing his hat into that ring filled with Duterte’s men — the ones who have purportedly made money go ’round the House just to get the speakership, as per Alvarez, and recently as per another Duterte man Alan Peter Cayetano. That the Duterte son wants to take part in this already corrupt process that has absolutely NOTHING to do with the people, is telling. That this further ruins their father’s credibility, doesn’t seem to matter to Paolo at all.

One wonders why any of us should listen to this President when his own children do not. When his own children don’t care to follow his rules, do not care to respect his wishes, and blatantly disregard his statements, why should we listen to Duterte at all?

Meanwhile, given how much cash getting the speakership requires, one can only imagine how much cash the Duterte children will now need to put up to “unite the House.” How much are Congress Reps earning, just watching these men race for the Speakership? And of course we can already imagine how the new House Speaker, whoever he is, will get his money back via the speakership. With Duterte’s children in control of Congress, there is absolutely no reason to even believe that an impeachment is possible.

Between Duterte’s children and his men, this is the most discredited Congress has ever been. It doesn’t even matter who gets the speakership. Either way, the people lose. Shit happens.

Ah, but the unraveling continues, and as we keep our heads above water and figure out how to survive these Duterte times, we must be glad for this unraveling. After all: the more the people are oppressed by the greed and violence of Duterte’s men, and now by the President’s own children, the more we will wonder about what we can do, and the more critical we can only get. Hope springs. ***