Welcome to 2026, the Year of Living Dangerously - For the Marcoses and the Dutertes

By Joey Salgado

This year will be the year when the Marcoses, without manang Imee, and the Dutertes deploy their armies in the political equivalent of Squid Games. For these clashing political families, 2026 will be the year of reckoning, the year of living dangerously.

Next year might be too late for the President. By 2027, he can no longer rely on a pliant Congress. Re-electionists will be busy courting voters, shifting their priorities to self-preservation. Old loyalties will be discarded and new ones embraced. The President’s political dictates will carry as much power and resonance as a diverticulitis-induced fart in the wind.

The time to mount a final assault against Vice President Sara Duterte is now. And impeachment appears to be the only recourse. The President still exerts political influence in the House even if most congressmen have been silently grumbling over the institutional damage inflicted by the flood control “shame” speech. It has also jacked up the cost of their candidacies with the rise of new competitors and overly demanding ward leaders. The President needs to find a way to heal the hurt.

The Vice President, on the other hand, may enjoy higher trust ratings than the President now but her base of support is confined to Mindanao and Cebu. Her numbers are relatively high but wobbly. As shown in the past, they rise and fall faster than you can say Mary Grace Piattos.

Her refusal to confront the scandalous revelations of misusing confidential funds and her erratic behavior are her weakest points. Should the House impeach her a second time, she will be tried by a Senate reconfigured by the flood control controversy. Some of her staunchest allies, which includes several members of the majority, have been tainted by claims they received kickbacks from infrastructure projects. At least two are candidates for indictment, while the others are vulnerable to pressures from the administration (Senator Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa remains in hiding).

Not a done deal

For all the time and planning needed to mount such an endeavor, the Supreme Court may yet again throw a monkey wrench by invoking its power of judicial review over impeachment cases. Then there’s the time factor. The impeachment trial must be dispensed with at the soonest time possible, for there is nothing a re-electionist fears more than retribution from a victorious political enemy.

Impeachment and conviction will be weighed not for its merits but its political consequences. In the end, it’s all about political survival not only for the two highest officials of the land but also the congressmen and senator-judges.

At the moment, the Vice President can only count on DDS vloggers and personalities for her counter-offensive. A few retired generals have pledged support but they do not have the clout, muscle, or the resources to disrupt much less unseat the President. The Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) appears disinclined to mobilize its faithful in support of another political adventure.

That might change, however, if the Vice President’s rise in popularity is left unchallenged and support for her hardens. Her momentum must be stopped this year.

In this battle to end all battles, one family could emerge victorious. But there is also the possibility that the path of mutually assured destruction could favor a still unknown outsider candidate.

We do live in interesting times.