Plan C

Undeniable speculations have flown thick and fast about the meeting between Davao City Mayor Sara “Inday” Duterte-Carpio and former senator and presidential aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos in Cebu City.

Both Sara and Bongbong refuse to divulge the real reasons why they, two political giants, had a meeting.

Sara said Bongbong asked help from her Hugpong ng Pagbabago party for the Mindanao vote.

Other than that request for support for his candidacy, Sara said the get-together was purely social; both attended the birthday party of party-list Rep. Yedda Romualdez, wife of House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez.

Bongbong, as we all know, is a Romualdez on his mother’s side.

Psssst! But wait.

My little birdies in Cebu said that Sara might just run as Bongbong’s party-mate to upset Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go, who’s running for the vice presidency.

She also wants to unsettle her father, President Digong.

Several times during the party, Sara expressed abhorrence over Go’s close bonding with her father, according to one of my little birdies (By little birdy I mean sources, not the other meaning. –RTT).

Go was the Special Assistant to the President, or SAP, a title he held until he was elected senator.

Sara implied that even after getting elected senator, Bong Go continues to be “servile” – that’s not my choice of wording, but of my little birdies – to Digong.

There’s nothing wrong with Bong being a servant to her father, Sara implied; it’s just that she and her siblings can’t go directly to the President without passing through him.

To be fair, Go is just following orders from the President: everybody, including his relatives, will have to pass through him.

So, what really transpired during the “chance” meeting between the presidential daughter and the son of former president Ferdinand Marcos Sr.?

Here’s what I gathered from my spies in Cebu:

Sara said that in August her father’s wish was to run for vice president with Bong Go as standard-bearer. She called it “Plan A.”

The “Plan B” was for Sara to run for president with Bong Go as her running mate.

But last week, “Plan C” was hatched by Majority Speaker Romualdez and Energy Secretary Al Cusi, touting a Bongbong Marcos (BBM)-Bong Go (BG) tandem.

Why? They want to stop headstrong Sara at all costs, according to my spies.

As we all know, there’s bad blood between daughter and father.

Sara hasn’t gotten over her parents’ separation; she sides with her mother, Elizabeth Zimmerman, a Filipino-German who’s a former Philippine Airlines flight attendant.

When Sara was elected mayor along with her father as vice mayor, her first order of business was to dismiss all her father’s Davao City Hall subordinates.

Under Plan C, according to my Cebu spies, Digong would run for the Senate, with an eye for acquiring the position of Senate president.

Plan C, which will be presented to Bongbong Marcos anytime now, requires the following from Bongbong himself: he would have to retain all key Cabinet members, such as Francisco Duque for health, Cusi for energy, Carlos “Sonny” Dominguez for finance and Salvador “Bingbong” Medialdea as executive secretary.

From where I sit, it seems that the current administration has figured out everything, including a Marcos-Go win and a victory for Digong in the Senate race.

Why are they so cocky about winning?

What if Bongbong Marcos does not accede?

What will happen to him if he doesn’t agree, given that he’s leading in all the current surveys for “presidentiables?”
As they say in Pilipino: Abangan ang susunod na kabanata.

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The Dargani siblings – Mohit, Pharmally treasurer, and Twinkle, the company’s president – are nowhere to be found.

They were not in any of their three known addresses when agents of the Senate sergeant-at-arms came calling.

The Senate Blue Ribbon has issued an arrest order for them for their refusal to submit financial documents that the committee required.

Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. is under investigation for alleged gross overpricing of face masks, face shields and personal protective equipment (PPE’s) ordered by the government.

For a company capitalized at P625,000, Pharmally has bagged a multibillion-peso contract from the Department of the Budget and Management’s procurement service.

They can run, but they can’t hide for long. As a cliché goes, the long arm of the law will eventually catch up with a fugitive from justice.

The controversy-seeking Ferdinand Topacio, lawyer of Linconn Ong, another Pharmally executive, who is detained at the Senate jail on contempt issues, said the Upper Chamber had no authority to arrest any person outside its premises.

Where did this buffoon study law?

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Even if there is a ban on nurses to work abroad, they can and will find ways to go to other countries.

For one, they can travel to foreign countries as tourists.

How can the government now prevent a nurse from traveling abroad as a tourist?

The right to travel is a constitutional right.

Can we blame our nurses for seeking greener pastures in other countries given that they’re receiving a salary equivalent to that of an office clerk?

If we continue to treat our nurses as ordinary workers instead of the “pink-collar” professionals that they are, we will lose them to high-paying hospitals abroad.

“Pink-collar professionals” are those who have received high education and are service-oriented; the majority of them are women.

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Joke! Joke! Joke!

When your wife puts her head on your chest and slowly asks: “Dear, are you having a relationship with another woman?”

Just remember that your answer is not important at this time; what is important is your heartbeat.

Don’t panic! I repeat, don’t panic or you’ll be in hot water.