The Marcos-Romualdez zarzuela and the Sara-Imee telenovela

These traditional politicians may be deluding themselves into imagining that trapos like them can fool all the people all the time. By all appearances, the president is conclusively committed to support his first-degree cousin, Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez for president in 2028. The speaker is accompanying BBM in all foreign travels even if diplomacy is never part of his duties as head of the Lower House.

With the speaker always beside him or at his back, the president always mentions Vice President Sara in his speeches as part of the zarzuela to make a show that the Marcos-Duterte alliance or the Uniteam is intact, strong, and indivisible. Tell that to the marines. Former president Rodrigo Duterte could not be fooled nor hoodwinked. He knows that the Marcoses and the Romualdezes are preparing for 2028, and their plans do not include Inday Sara. The Marcoses have apparently appointed Senator Imee to play the role of a good cop in order to appease the Dutertes and so that they will have a spy in the Duterte camp. Manang Imee, the elder sister of BBM, is playing her role to the hilt, as if she is vying for a FAMAS award. They may be fooling most of the people most of the time but not this writer. I know these trapos. I know the Marcoses from Adam. And the last six years exposed us to who the Dutertes truly are.

Come 2028, the Marcoses will be all-out for Speaker Martin. They are going to work hard to make the Solid North vote stand firmly for the presidential cousin. If they play their cards to the best of poker, they might even allow a Sara Duterte for president and an Imee Marcos for vice president to run under the opposition banner. The administration will field Martin Romualdez for president and either Cynthia Villar or Win Gatchalian for vice president. The Marcos-Romualdez clan needs a multi billionaire to fund the campaign. This would follow the template of FM Sr. when in 1965 he tapped the super-wealthy Fernando Lopez to run for vice president. Toto Nanding was the brother of Don Eugenio Lopez who owned Meralco, ABS-CBN, and the Chronicle publications aside from huge landholdings in Western Visayas.

And so, it will be Romualdez-Villar or Romualdez-Gatchalian versus Sara Duterte-Imee Marcos colorful and exciting pintakasi. Secretly, Robinhood Padilla will be asked by Digong to run as an independent vice presidential bet. The Marcos group will campaign hard for Martin Romualdez and secretly support Imee for vice president. Villar or Gatchalian will be dropped like a hot potato just like how Marcos Sr. dropped Toto Nanding Lopez immediately before martial law. The end result would be a Martin Romualdez for president and Imee Marcos as vice president. When the Duterte camp discovers this scenario to be unfolding, they will secretly drop Imee and insert Robinhood as the true vice president of Sara Duterte. The two competing teams are known for their many political machinations.

Therefore, the next presidential derby will be a confrontation of political poker players. The Dutertes’ bags of schemes and tactics will clash with the Marcos-Romualdez chest of multiple betrayals and treacheries. Locally, Martin Romualdez will find it hard to win in Cebu if the Garcias will stay with Inday Sara. But if Marcos puts pressure on the Garcias, with Christina Frasco in the Cabinet and with Deputy Speaker Duke Frasco as part of the Martin Romualdez inner core of political henchmen, then Inday Sara may be abandoned by the province of her own father. The Marcoses are very good at pressuring local politicians. In 1969, FM Sr. held the hands of congressmen Ramon Durano, Ed Kintanar, Manuel Zosa, and Tereso Dumon and their grand collaboration succeeded in defeating Serging Osmeña Jr. right here in Cebu Province. The rest is history.

The Filipinos who truly love this nation should look for better, cleaner, and more upright options other than Sara Duterte and Martin Romualdez. This country has long suffered and has been exploited for the longest time. Let us drop all the trapos and choose a new David to save God's chosen people from injustice and oppression. Evil continues to triumph because all the good men and women are either afraid or uncaring.

When do we break the chains of all that oppress us? Why don't we start opening our eyes and begin to be angry at all the lies, injustices, and treacheries emanating from these trapos?