VP Duterte? Mura’g si Manny!

President Duterte is not running for vice president in 2022. Those who believe he will deserve the sleepless nights they must now be suffering. That he said he is sold to the idea is just another jet ski fiction for the gullible to pounce on. For those who still don't get Duterte after five years, sorry but it is now too late to catch up. The old fart from Davao is a probinsyano who is just too good at playing practical jokes on the naive and unsuspecting.

Sara Duterte Carpio, his daughter, the mayor of Davao City, is running for president. That is the reason why seasons ago she set up, just in case, the regional party Hugpong ng Pagbabago that is now swiftly consolidating. While she may have declared her openness to run for president only now after playing coy for the longest time, she does take after the father. She is just as practical and down-to-earth as she is forward-looking.

Sara kept her cards close to her chest to avoid becoming an instant target too early. Eventually, though, she had to address the matter of her consistently topping the surveys. If she played coy too long, that massive public preference might shift to another presidential hopeful. Definitely she does not want to be seen as another Leni Robredo who, until now, is still hemming and hawing, too indecisive to be president.

But Sara did not stop there. She said she is also open to Tatay Digong running for vice president as her running mate. That to me is the dead giveaway that indeed he is not running. At first my suspicion was that the yarn was to deflect attention away from Sara. With Sara seeming to confirm it, my suspicions of a red herring had been confirmed. Listen, suckers, nothing can make Sara surely lose than a Duterte-Duterte tandem.

Such a tandem might work at the municipal or provincial level. But you cannot go national with that without inviting serious repercussions. It is a configuration that is the surest thing to invite a backfire. It is so anathema to good sense that Duterte himself knows he and Sara could both end up losing. And given the controversies hounding his own term, Duterte cannot afford losing everything.

The realities of politics are such that what you say you won't you will and what you say you will you won't. In the case of the Dutertes, it is not just how the game is played, it is imperative that it is how it must be played exceedingly well. At the very least, a Duterte must win. And it has to be at the presidential level. Anything short of that is simply unacceptable, hence the red herrings, to know who the suckers are, and whom to get real with.

One other thing. Duterte is not and will never be a Manny Pacquiao. He may be president but he knows his limits. He owns up to his shortcomings. Besides, his character was not built and molded in the same circumstances that Manny built and molded his. Manny grew up in a life full of hardship and deprivation. Now that he is rich beyond his wildest dreams, he thinks dreams are enough to be anything and everything. Well, dream on, Manny.

The danger of too much wealth is it can push those unprepared to handle it outside the realm of reality. While Manny pays to record songs thinking he is a rock star, Duterte still eats utan mongos even if he is president. It's a matter of not losing sight of who you really are. I salute Dolphy. Prodded once to run for president on the strength of his popularity, the comedian replied simply: "What if I win?"