“She said she was not joking. Twice.”
I’d give it to Vice President Sara Duterte—she knows how to stir a hornet’s nest. But what should we expect? She is the padawan (apprentice) of a Jedi master, and the mindform is a power of the Force.
Even by her standards, however, Inday Sara’s meltdown at 2 a.m.—just before the witching hour—on a Friday was way over the top.
She apparently realized this, albeit belatedly, as she tried to inject some sanity into her histrionics during the devil’s hour. But her attempt to justify her diabolical design clashed with her training as a lawyer.
Let’s rewind to the profanity-laced rampage where she detailed her plan for revenge in case she is taken from this world prematurely, with the entire world listening, thanks to international media coverage.
Stressing not once but twice that she wasn’t joking, Inday Sara claimed she had contracted an assassin to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and his cousin, House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, in case she was liquidated.
She would later describe the apparent testate or a legally valid will, as ‘revenge from the grave.’
After her tirade was characterized as an ‘active threat’ by the President’s Executive Secretary requiring security action, the Vice President toned down her bombast and emphasized that hers was merely preemptive self-defense, in case attempts on her life succeeded.
She even asked, and here I paraphrase: Why would I want the president killed? How would I benefit from such an untimely death?
Hello? Earth to Sara. Even a first-year law student would tell you that the Constitution has a clear provision on succession if a sitting president can no longer discharge his duties.
But this is all smoke and mirrors—a diversion to draw attention away from the real issue: The corruption surrounding the disposition of confidential funds in the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education, a Cabinet portfolio Inday Sara held until July of this year.
In total, we’re talking about over P500 million in public funds whose usage didn’t comply with the standards for confidential funds—a fact brought to light by a memo from the Commission on Audit, which the OVP sought to suppress by asking COA not to report to Congress.
Isn’t that obstruction of justice?
But how could she stop COA from submitting those reports to Congress, particularly the House of Representatives, which is charged by the Constitution with the duty to oversee how taxpayers’ money is spent?
COA is required by law to provide copies of those reports to Congress and the Office of the President.
And what is the role of the VP’s chief of staff, Zuleika Lopez—whose detention in the House and later to the Veterans Memorial Hospital—is apparently the fuse that sent Inday Sara to run amuck, in all of this?
Well, Lopez is one of three signatories to the liquidation reports for the OVP’s confidential funds that were sent to the COA. Surely, she knows or has information on who Mary Grace Piattos is. Heck, she may even have a hand in providing the alias to that informant, if such a person really existed.
Inday Sara said Lopez had expressed her intention to resign as OVP chief of staff to care for her mother.
The VP said Lopez would testify at the House hearings but wasn’t clear on what her testimony would contain.
Clearly, all these controversies could end, and she could shield her people from future stress if Inday Sara testifies in Congress under oath.
The truth will set your people free, Inday Sara.
Kaiju Sotto
When I read comments about Kai Sotto’s sterling performance against the New Zealand Tall Blacks basketball team describing him as “Kaiju”, I had to look up its meaning online. What I found out is that “Kaiju” is a Japanese term that literally means “strange beast” and is usually translated as “monster” in English. Well, the term to describe Kai is well-deserved, as he has vastly improved his basketball skills over the past several years and could bring Gilas Pilipinas to greater heights in the years ahead, together, of course, with his teammates under the competent tutelage of Tim Cone.
(Email: ernhil@yahoo.com)
