The ‘real pressure’

In a video message last Monday, Vice President Sara Duterte talked about certain kinds of “real pressure” being borne – not by her, she swore. The “real pressure,” VP Sara bewailed, is being made to bear upon all of us Filipinos. VP Sara assuaged though her well-wishers she remains ready and capable to face these “real pressures” along with the people.

VP Sara was addressing the sentiments of many of her loyal and rabid supporters about the on-going Senate impeachment trial against her. And just last Friday, she added, she was criminally charged with three counts of grave threats before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) and subsequently posted bail for her temporary liberty.

“So many of you have sent messages of support, prayers and concern. With so many messages, I cannot respond to each one… Many also said that they are stressed out by the impeachment and the cases I am facing,” VP Sara cited.

“I want to convey to all of you that you do not need to worry and do not be pressured,” she assuaged the public in general.

VP Sara reiterated her lament that she is not getting a fair shake under the administration of her estranged “UniTeam” erstwhile partner President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM). She begrudged again her travails since she resigned from the Cabinet and left the Marcos administration in July 2024. “My only trust is in the people, and I am deeply grateful for your continued trust despite the relentless political harassment from the Marcos administration,” she stressed.

This was after Quezon City RTC Branch 98 of presiding judge Maria Angelica De Ramos found probable cause on three counts of grave threats directed at President Marcos, First Lady Liza Marcos and former speaker Martin Romualdez. Incidentally, both VP Sara and Judge De Ramos belonged to Sororitas Reginae Juris during their student days at the San Beda College of Law.

Herself a lawyer, VP Sara was accompanied by her legal advisers led by former Office of the Vice President (OVP) official spokesman Michael Poa, one of her defense counsels at the Senate impeachment court. Still, VP Sara publicly echoed her distrust of the police as well as the court. If she does not trust the Philippine courts, then why are they insisting to bring back her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, to face here in our country the charges on alleged extrajudicial killings and not prosecuted at The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC)?

VP Sara voluntarily surrendered to the De Ramos court in QC. By doing so, she evaded the spectacle of being arrested and handcuffed as police procedures required on the service of warrant. But that was exactly what she wanted originally, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Jonvic Remulla revealed last Monday.

Remulla spilled the beans that the Vice President’s chief security purportedly inquired about her being taken to the Camp Crame Detention Center where she could be photographed being handcuffed and be seen “behind bars.” Actually, Remulla pointed out, the VP is facing a bailable offense and therefore no need for her to go through such “drama.” The DILG secretary surmised the OVP had a change of mind and she went directly instead to QC court.

Contrary to those who do not know court procedures, there was no “special treatment” given to VP Sara that day. No less than her own arch critic Jess Falcis at PolitikoTalks last Friday night explained the new court procedures allow the accused to submit their own mug photos, barangay certification and detailed map where she resides and finger-printing.

Falcis surmised VP Sara did not present herself to the court right away that Friday night to prepare these requirements for a bailable offense like grave threats. Incidentally, lawyer-singer Jimmy Bondoc hit the right note on that same night’s show at PolitikoTalks in correctly predicting the likely arrest soon of VP Sara’s arch nemesis, ex-speaker Romualdez.

Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla, older brother of the DILG secretary, finally filed at the Sandiganbayan the first of a “series” of plunder, graft and money-laundering cases against Romualdez.

After seven months of investigation, the ombudsman charged Romualdez in the alleged P7.4-billion kickbacks from the questioned flood control projects under the 2022-2025 budget laws approved during his watch as speaker of the 19th Congress.

Like a tag team, the Remulla brothers are now making sure to carry out PBBM’s promise of no special treatment given to any accused, even the latter’s own first cousin. But Romualdez beat them to a draw by going to Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan City. Before he could be served the arrest warrant for his plunder case, he placed himself under hospital detention. Since plunder is a non-bailable crime, the Sandiganbayan ordered yesterday the attending doctors of Romualdez to explain and justify their diagnosis of their patient.

The arrest of the so-called “big fish” in the flood control scandal eclipsed VP Sara’s video message on “real pressures” she is being made to suffer.

“The real pressure is the shame that I can do so little to help you through your suffering right now,” VP Sara grumbled. “With every time you swim in the flood, with your children going hungry, with the hardship you suffer due to the continuous increase in the price of goods and the various burdens caused by the Marcos administration, I feel like I am not doing enough to alleviate your suffering,” she complained.

“The real pressure is being a government official while I see that Marcos and some other officials seem to only put their own interests first, instead of the welfare of every Filipino. The real pressure is the historic drop in the value of the peso against the dollar, which is now at 62.77 pesos (to a $1). The real pressure is your loss of trust in the government,” VP Sara ranted.

But is there a bogus or fake pressure? Or perhaps artificial or trumped up pressure?