In the Month of Love, the Dutertes Talk Chaos and Revolution

By Joey Salgado

February is the month of love and revolution. That’s Valentine’s Day and the EDSA Revolution, separated by a couple of days, which could explain the availability of roses as peace tokens for loyalist soldiers 39 years ago.

But the Duterte camp is sure trying to scare us like it’s Halloween with all this noise about chaos, restoration, and another revolution.

First was Salvador Panelo, the lawyer who reminds me of a smartly-dressed gecko, the males being more colorful than females. He is also the former legal counsel of former president Rodrigo Duterte.

Panelo claims that Duterte the father will run for president again in 2028 should the Senate recover its long-lost dignity and independence and convict the impeached Vice President, Sara Duterte. With Duterte’s current state of health, his 2028 presidential run could be billed as the return of the living dead.

The lawyer in slinky pants was followed by Vice President Duterte herself. After feigning dedma to her looming impeachment trial by throwing a pa-cute line for media, she ran to the Supreme Court, imploring the hallowed institution to stop the constitutionally-mandated process.

The Vice President’s legal team includes her father, whose sterling legal career is capped by his admission, in a 2016 press conference, that he planted evidence against suspects when he was a city prosecutor.

The Vice President’s petition claimed that her impeachment “was done at the expense of constitutional standards.” And her resurrected online trolls, allegedly jolted to life by an adrenaline shot from a foreign power, are scaring us with the prospect of another EDSA Revolution, complete with copy-pasted drone shots from a 2024 concert in Cebu.

And recently, the reanimated former president Duterte, in a rally in Cebu (the same rally with a copy-pasted, fact-checked drone shot of a 2024 concert in the city), said he was willing to bet that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will declare martial law like his late father, who was ousted in the month of love and revolution, as part of a grand scheme to suspend the presidential election in 2028 and rule indefinitely.

Duterte warned of chaos, the kind of chaos unleashed when one man uses his powers to coerce independent institutions, exercise total control over Congress, gag critics, and leave thousands dead or missing. Something like the Duterte years, or what the hardcore DDS calls the good old days.

Scarefest in February

The scarefest is an attempt by the Dutertes to regain the propaganda initiative and reframe the stakes in this election.

The Dutertes are bullies. They are not used to being on the defensive, forced to fight against the wall by an incumbent with a bigger megaphone and unlimited resources at his disposal. And they can’t bear the fact that Marcos Jr., the “weakling,” is beating them at their own game, going toe to toe and landing haymakers each time they throw a jab.

But by refashioning themselves as champions of democracy, decency, and the rule of law, the Dutertes only invite ridicule and scrutiny of their failings and alleged criminal acts.

By running to the Supreme Court, they allowed the House prosecution panel to keep the Vice President’s impeachment front and center of the public discourse. Instead of being sidelined by election noise, the anchor issues of irregularities in the use of confidential funds, her conduct, and fitness to lead remain hot-button topics.

Every attempt by the Dutertes to redraw the frame encourages the President and his operators to skewer the former president and his daughter, drawing a contrast between the Duterte years and the Marcos years from the frame of compassion for the poor and commitment to the rule of law. And it’s something they can do without breaking a sweat.

Baste Duterte, the gruff surfer-dude Mayor of Davao City, reacting to her sister’s impeachment, gave this warning on Threads: “Cornered animals become aggressive Martin Romualdez, Bongbong Marcos.” And so they have, hissing and cussing and acting tough. As Matet, the child actress, not the look-alike politician, once said: Takot ako.

This article also appears in Rappler