Beiträge von ALFI54

    The men of the Duterte family were nowhere in sight during President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s public events in Davao City on Wednesday, February 7, his first trip to the King City of the South since his feud with the political clan spilled into the public eye.


    Marcos attended three events: the inauguration of the Davao City Bulk Water Supply Project, the region-wide land e-title distribution to agrarian reform beneficiaries, and the ceremonial signing of contracts for the Davao Public Transport Modernization Project (DPTMP). Vice President Sara Duterte was present in the last two.


    Davao City Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte, meanwhile, was absent in all three. It is highly unusual for a sitting local chief executive to miss an event graced by the President in their locality.


    An unimpeachable source told Rappler on condition of anonymity that Baste was invited to the DPTMP event organized by the Department of Transportation (DOTr), but declined to attend, without giving a reason.


    Davao City 1st District Representative Paolo Duterte and former president Rodrigo Duterte also did not attend any of the three events. Rappler also learned they were invited to the DOTr ceremony, but provided no feedback.


    Their absence is notable, but not entirely surprising, since the word war between Marcos and the Dutertes took place just over a week ago.


    On January 28, the Dutertes graced a leadership forum and a candlelight prayer rally against charter change in Davao City – events where they seized the opportunity to criticize President Marcos.


    Baste called for Marcos’ resignation, while the former president – notorious for tagging personalities in the narco ring without basis – accused his successor of once being part of the government’s drug watch list.


    A day later, Marcos retaliated by claiming that it was Duterte’s continued fentanyl use that was making him act erratically in public.


    On that spectacle-filled day, Vice President Sara attended Marcos’ “Bagong Pilipinas” grand rally in Manila, before flying to Davao City to take part in the candlelight prayer rally.


    https://www.rappler.com/nation…davao-city-february-2024/

    Verkaufsraum von Pacific Motors, Binondo, 1928


    Verkaufsraum auf den Philippinen für Pontiacs, La Salles und Cadillacs.


    Der Verkaufsraum von Pacific Motors befand sich damals auf der Rückseite des bis heute bestehenden Regina-Gebäudes.


    Das Regina Building, früher bekannt als Roxas Building, ist ein historisches Gebäude an der Escolta Street.


    Ich denke, das Gebäude PM besteht nicht mehr. Zusätzliche Informationen konnte ich nicht finden.


    Over 1,400 police officers are being deployed within Manila in line with the country’s observance of Chinese New Year on Feb. 10, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said on Tuesday.


    PNP-Public Information Office data shows the national police had positioned 1,457 personnel as early as Jan. 26.


    Of the figure, 92 are police commissioned officers (PCO), while 1,365 are non-commissioned officers (PNCO). Under the present system, the ranks of PCO start at Inspector, the equivalent of 2nd Lieutenant in the military up to Director General, the equivalent of a 4-star General, while PNCOs, start at Police Officer 1 up to SPO4 (Master Sergeant).


    PNP personnel are securing three events: the Meisic Street Food Fair – which will last until Feb. 15, the Chinese New Year’s kick-off ceremony last February 1, and the operation of Mercato Food Stalls in Intramuros last Feb. 2.


    To ensure public safety, more police officers will be deployed during the Lucky Chinatown Mall concert, the Binondo-Intramuros fireworks display on Feb. 9, and the Solidarity Parade on February 10. They will also be dispatched in areas covered by Ongpin Street from Feb. 9 to 11.


    As many as 208 police officers will conduct checkpoints at various parts of Manila on Feb. 8, while 102 personnel will be on standby from Feb. 9 to 11 to ensure public safety.


    Read more: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/…festivities#ixzz8QwmHfZtH

    Officials from Mindanao cold-shouldered former President Rodrigo Duterte’s call to revive a movement for Mindanao independence even as organized governors and mayors conveyed their dismay over the squabbling between the Marcoses and the Dutertes, warning of its potential to fragment the nation.


    “It won’t prosper. Don’t Mindanaonons feel that they are Filipinos?” said Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III of Duterte’s announcement of a revived movement for Mindanao independence on Friday, February 2.


    Pimentel, who hails from Cagayan de Oro, served as the first Senate president during the Duterte administration. He later lost the top Senate post and clashed with the former president’s supporters who snatched the leadership of the then-administration Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) from him. The party was founded by his father, the late Cagayan de Oro mayor and senator Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr.


    On January 30, Duterte told a news conference in Davao that he had asked former House Speaker and Davao del Norte Representative Pantaleon Alvarez to lead the movement because he was among the first to circulate papers “about the desirability of Mindanao seceding from the Republic of the Philippines.”

    Inspired by Canoy

    Earlier that same day, Alvarez told Cagayan de Oro-based broadcaster Magnum Radio that his group drew inspiration from the late Reuben Canoy, who was among the first to advocate Mindanao independence.


    Canoy, a former Cagayan de Oro mayor, had subsequently mellowed down on his advocacy and became a member of Duterte’s 25-member Consultative Committee (ConCom) that drafted proposed changes to the 1987 Constitution. However, Duterte did not act on the committee’s recommendations.


    Duterte’s announcement came just two days after he lambasted his successor’s administration, including First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and Speaker Martin Romualdez, for allegedly being behind the so-called people’s initiative to amend the Constitution. He said it was meant to perpetuate the Marcos family in power.

    ‘Political’

    Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) Chief Minister Ahod “Al Haj Murad” Ebrahim told reporters in Cotabato City that he saw Duterte’s move to revive calls for Mindanao independence as the former president’s way of flexing his “political” muscle.


    “I think it’s more political…. [He’s] trying to use it for his political [agenda],” Ebrahim said.


    But Ebrahim also cautioned against the so-called people’s initiative to amend the 1987 Constitution even as he raised questions about the timing of the campaign.

    He said, “It can be used for political [purposes].”


    Ebrahim is the chairman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a former rebel group that had fought for greater autonomy for a predominantly Muslim region in Mindanao. It abandoned its call for the region’s independence and later agreed on a political settlement with the government in 2012, a move which led to the creation of the BARMM.

    Rejected by governors

    The League of Provinces of the Philippines (LPP), an organization composed of governors, rejected renewed calls for Mindanao independence.


    In a February 2 statement entitled, “We are all Filipinos,” LPP members, particularly governors from Mindanao, said they do not support Duterte’s call for Mindanao to secede.


    The LPP, incidentally, is headed by South Cotabato Governor Reynaldo Tamayo Jr., a Mindanao-based provincial chief executive.


    “While the proposal promotes self-determination by its people to chart their future, it is myopic and parochial in [a] world that is becoming open and borderless. It destroys the integrity of the territory of the nation… It promotes the division of a nation seeking to be united in diversity and distinctions. It is motivated by politics rather than a genuine regard for autonomy and decentralization,” read part of the LPP statement.

    The organization said it also “rejects attempts to split the nation into small states and governments that only hinder national progress and development.”


    It added, “At this juncture, or any time in the future, we need a nation that is united and undivided…. We may be different, but we are all Filipinos.”


    The LPP released the statement on Friday, which marked the 37th anniversary of the ratification of the 1987 Constitution.

    Mayors’ stance

    On the same day, a coalition of local chief executives advocating good governance also expressed concern over what it saw as escalating political divisions that threatened to fragment the nation.


    The group, Mayors for Good Governance (M4GG), said it noted that public discussions surrounding constitutional matters have taken a turn, and contributed to squabbling between two political factions, obviously referring to the bickering groups of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Duterte.


    The mayors’ group said the intense political discord only added to the problems that the country faces such as the high prices of goods, insufficient workers’ wages, and rampant corruption.


    It appealed to the warring groups, “Sa ating mga kapwa lingkod-bayan: unahin natin ang kapakanan ng mamamayang Pilipino at huwag na tayo dumagdag sa mga problema nila.”

    (To our fellow public servants: let us prioritize the welfare of the Filipino people and refrain from adding to their problems.)


    The M4GG represents 159 local chief executives and is led by Baguio Mayor Benjamin Magalong, Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte, Pasig Mayor Vico Sotto, Dumaguete Mayor Felipe Remollo, Marikina Mayor Marcy Teodoro, Isabela City Mayor Sitti Hataman, and Mayor Rommel Arnado of Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte.

    Budget problem

    Meanwhile, the chairman of the House committee on constitutional amendments, Cagayan de Oro 2nd District Representative Rufus Rodriguez, cautioned against the revived call for Mindanao independence.


    “President Duterte’s proposal for Mindanao independence has to be reviewed carefully. We have to know the reasons why [there is a call for] independence now and the procedure to get there. This idea of secession is stoking the fire against the administration of President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr., who is just one and a half years in office. We should give a chance to the new President to implement programs for Mindanao,” Rodriguez told Rappler on Friday.


    Rodriguez said any movement for Mindanao’s independence will not gain traction if the government gives the country’s second-largest island a bigger budget for its development.


    He said seven of the 10 poorest provinces in the country are in Mindanao, which was given only 16% of the 2024 national budget.


    “Mindanao produces 22% of the national wealth. Why only 16%?” said Rodriguez, adding that inequality was “the reason behind why the idea of secession is being entertained.”


    Rodriguez, however, told Rappler that Mindanao did not receive a bigger share of the national budget during the six-year Duterte administration.

    “Not so much also during President Digong’s (Duterte’s) time,” Rodriguez said.


    https://www.rappler.com/nation…uterte-independence-call/

    Malacañan-Palast, 1934


    Der Malacañan-Palast die offizielle Residenz des Präsidenten der Philippinen. Der Palast liegt am nördlichen Ufer des Pasig Rivers in Manila. In der philippinischen Sprache wird er als "Palasyo ng Malakanyang" bezeichnet.


    Vor der Unabhängigkeit von Neuspanien wurden die Philippinen von einem spanischen Generalkapitän regiert, der, wie nachfolgend der Generalgouverneur der Philippinen, in Manila hinter den Mauern des Intramuros residierte, bis im Jahre 1869 ein Erdbeben den Palacio del Gobernador (Gouverneurspalast) vollständig zerstörte.


    Zu diesem Zeitpunkt war der Malacañang-Palast noch ein Sommerhaus, das ursprünglich im Jahre 1802 von dem spanischen Aristokraten Don Luis Rocha erbaut worden war. Anschließend wurde er von einer spanischen Amtsperson erworben und ging danach in den Besitz des Staates über.


    Nach dem Spanisch-Amerikanischen Krieg kamen die Philippinen unter amerikanische Herrschaft und der Malacañang-Palast wurde zur Residenz des amerikanischen Generalgouverneurs.


    Im Jahre 1900 zog William Howard Taft als erster amerikanischer Zivilgouverneur in Malacañang ein.


    Nach der Einrichtung des Commonwealth der Philippinen am 15. November 1935 wurde der Komplex von Manuel Quezon übernommen, der als erster philippinischen Präsident in dem Palast logierte.


    Insgesamt residierten in ihm bis dahin 18 spanische General- und 14 amerikanische Zivilgouverneure, bevor der Palast zu der offiziellen Residenz aller nachfolgenden philippinischen Präsidenten wurde.


    https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaca%C3%B1an-Palast


    Makati City Rep. Luis Jose Angel Campos Jr. on Sunday said that outbound Filipino passengers could still recover their airfare expenses should they miss their flights due to lengthy scrutiny by immigration officers.


    Campos, who is vice chair of the House committee on appropriations, said that the 2024 national budget includes a special provision for the travel expenses of passengers bound abroad who missed their flights due to “prolonged secondary inspection” by Bureau of Immigration (BI) officers. Campos said: “We are still awaiting the guidelines to be issued by the BI, the Department of Budget and Management and the Commission on Audit with respect to the implementation of the special provision.”


    Read more: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/…imbursement#ixzz8QqEELTVH


    Philippine government is ready to use “authority and forces” against attempts to divide the nation, a security official said Sunday, after former President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to separate some southern islands from the rest of the archipelago.


    Duterte has called for the independence of his hometown Mindanao from the Philippines as his alliance with President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. disintegrated this week over disagreements around efforts to amend the constitution.


    Marcos said amending the 1987 constitution was meant to ease foreign investments, but Duterte accused him of using constitutional change to stay in power.


    National security adviser Eduardo Año said in a statement that any attempt to secede “will be met by government with resolute force,” citing “recent calls to separate Mindanao,” but without specifically naming Duterte.


    “The national government will not hesitate to use its authority and forces to quell and stop any and all attempts to dismember the Republic,” Año warned.


    Read more: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/…attempt-ano#ixzz8QmjMRgDf

    Tutuban Railway Station, Tondo, 1920


    Der Bahnhof Tutuban (auch Manila-Bahnhof oder Divisoria-Bahnhof genannt) ist der zentrale Endpunkt des Netzes der Philippine National Railways (PNR) in der Stadt Manila.


    Der Bahnhof Tutuban wurde als Teil der „Ferrocarril de Manila-Dagupan“ oder der Manila-Dagupan-Linie gebaut. Die Eisenbahn war zum Zeitpunkt ihrer Eröffnung am 24. November 1892 195 Kilometer lang und führte von Manila nach Dagupan in Pangasinan.


    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tutuban_station


    Banken setzen vermehrt auf KI bei Kreditkartennutzungskontrolle. Mir wurde letzlich die KK gesperrt, da das Nutzungsprofil der KI nicht passte. Mit Recht, es schützte mich vor einem Betrugsfall.


    Wie die Vorschreiber schon erwähnten, man sollte seine Bank über längere Aufenthalte irgendwo informieren.


    LG Alf

    A few months ago, the Commission on Population and Development (CPD) announced that it revised its projection for the Philippines’ population count in 2023. The agency had adjusted its initial estimate from 115 million to 112 million due to the “drop in the number of births and high mortality rates.”


    However, recent data from the World Bank suggests that the CPD’s original projection might be more accurate than the revised one.

    PH among the only two SEA nations in the top 15

    As of 2022, the Philippines stands as the second most populous country in Southeast Asia, with about 115 million inhabitants spanning over an area of more than 300,000 square kilometers.


    The recent data also positions the archipelago as the 13th largest nation by population in the world—and one of only two Southeast Asian countries that made the top 15. (It trails behind Indonesia, which ranks fourth overall.)


    Near parity of males to females

    Interestingly, the demographic makeup of the Philippines shows an almost equal division between genders: over 58 million males and nearly 57 million females.


    ......


    https://usa.inquirer.net/14418…irect)&utm_medium=gallery

    It was an alliance that critics and political observers had jinxed as doomed from the start. The only questions were, when and what would happen to Vice President Sara Duterte, who is still a member of the Marcos Cabinet.


    They got a partial answer on January 28. The day that Marcos launched “Bagong Pilipinas” in Manila and promised to transform the country into a new and better version, down south, Davao City Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte called for his resignation while former president Rodrigo Duterte branded the President as a “drug addict.”


    The Vice President attended the Bagong Pilipinas launch but she also went to the prayer rally against charter change where her family members took turns lambasting the President she served as a Cabinet member. A day later, she released a statement defending her younger brother’s tirade against Marcos as “brotherly love,” in protest of her “despicable treatment” by people in the President’s circle. It was a sentiment that she apparently shared.


    Uniteam, the marriage of political convenience that brought the Marcos-Duterte tandem to victory in the 2022 elections, crumbled on Sunday, January 28.

    The word war between the Dutertes and the Marcoses has sparked calls for Sara to resign as education secretary, a job that commands 900,000 teaching staff scattered across the country.


    ‘Stuck to each other’

    Despite her family’s attacks against Marcos and her own sentiments of being ganged up on by administration allies, Sara has no plan, as yet, to leave DepEd. Her messaging, based on her January 29 statement, is that she would strive to endure the “attacks, black propaganda, and smear campaign” against her because she was elected by millions and that she would remain in the Cabinet for as long as she’s wanted.


    In an interview on Tuesday, January 31, political analyst Cleve Arguelles said that calls for Sara to leave the DepEd did not come as a surprise, as being part of the Marcos Cabinet should mean unequivocal support for the President.


    “But I think the more interesting question here is why is the President still keeping her after all what happened?” Arguelles said, adding, this means that “she still enjoys the confidence, the trust, and the support of the President.”


    Marcos said as much on Tuesday, in response to questions in a media interview. He also said that his professional relationship with the Vice President is “exactly the same,” sounding like a showbiz personality trying to cover up a rocky relationship with a love team partner.


    Just like any other popular tandem, they have to stick to each other despite their differences to keep their support bases intact. Mindanao remains a stronghold of the Duterte family and delivered votes for Marcos in the 2022 elections. Likewise, the Marcoses’ “Solid North” delivered votes for Sara.


    Marcos got 7.2 million votes in Mindanao, while Sara obtained 3.5 million votes in the Solid North.


    “They need each other,” Arguelles said. “I think this is a paradox of the Uniteam that they’re starting to dislike each other but then they also need each other. At this point, they are stuck with each other.”


    Sara is undeniably more popular than Marcos. Despite their ratings plunging amid a string of issues in 2023, Sara still got a 73% approval rating while Marcos got 65%, according to a Pulse Asia survey in September 2023.


    Arguelles also cited the seeming “tradition” in Philippine politics that vice presidents who break off with the president do not fare so well among voters.


    “They don’t like a vice president [who] is not cooperative with the president,” he said.

    This is what happened to then-vice presidents Jejomar Binay and Leni Robredo. They were initially part of the Cabinet but later resigned because of divergent views. Binay had been leading the surveys for the presidency that time but he became the subject of attacks. Meanwhile, Robredo became the casualty of online propaganda discrediting her work as vice president.

    DepEd as a stepping stone

    Sara would be on the losing end if she resigns from the Marcos Cabinet this early. The DepEd is a platform that can help her maintain a national profile, especially if she has ambitions for higher office. Based on DepEd data, there are 876,842 teaching personnel and 60,429 schools all over the country.


    “She will stay there for as long as she could,” Arguelles said. “If you’re no longer in the Cabinet, what will you do as vice president? What power and resources will [you have]?”


    The Philippines is among the countries that produced the lowest proficiency for young learners in reading, mathematics, and science, as indicated by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2022 rankings. That fact, however, has not rubbed off on public perception of Sara’s work as education chief. In December, the same month the PISA rankings were released, pollster WR Numero conducted a survey which showed that 57% of Filipinos still think Sara is doing a good job at DepEd.


    In her second basic education report, Sara also promised reforms in the education sector and more benefits for teachers. Arguelles said this may be a calculated move especially if she has an eye to the 2028 elections.


    “It will always be helpful for her to be able to say that she delivered to the education sector,” Arguelles said.


    Amid the political bickering, there are concerns that the DepEd, which has under its care millions of Filipino students and the very future of the country, would be placed at greater risk. If Sara’s attention is further distracted by her political plans, the learning crisis in the country would worsen. Her qualifications as education chief have been in question in the first place.


    “It’s really one of my worries, we can look at it from the perspective that, ‘Oh this is exciting,’ ‘di ba kasi (because) we’re watching a showdown between these two powerful dynasties. Si Vice President, isang araw lang na malingat siya (If the Vice President gets distracted by even just one day), it will define the future of millions of Filipino students,” Arguelles said.


    Critics have been calling for the President to appoint a DepEd secretary who has an education background.

    Playing the underdog card

    In her January 29 statement, Sara said she will endure the “attacks, black propaganda, and smear campaign” against her out of respect for the Filipinos who had voted her into office, evoking an image of a punching bag. This is far from the image that gained her infamy over a decade ago: that of the feisty female mayor who grabbed a sheriff by the collar and punched him repeatedly after he led the demolition of shanties in a community in Davao City.


    Political analyst Arjan Aguirre said that the ongoing rift in the Uniteam coalition can be advantageous for Sara, who can play the “underdog card.”


    “While staying as a Cabinet member, she can still draw sympathy from the people by appearing as the underdog and bullied personality within the coalition. She just has to look like she is being bullied by the House Speaker and other personalities and use the anti-elite or anti-oligarchy card that is consistent [with] the Duterte brand of politics,” Aguirre said.


    “I think what she wants to happen here is for the President to fire or dismiss her or openly go against her. That would mean an open war is finally happening and that it would look like the Marcos faction caused it,” he added.


    As the Vice President has said, the ball is in Marcos’ court. On a political stage where two popular figures are at play, whoever flinches first loses.


    https://www.rappler.com/newsbr…sara-resign-from-cabinet/

    The modernization of the country’s military gained a significant boost with the recent approval by President Marcos of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ upgraded acquisition plan called “Re-Horizon 3.”


    The plan, which has a 10-year timeline and would cost some P2 trillion, is geared toward protecting the country’s maritime and aerial domains, which have been repeatedly disrespected by China.


    In October last year, AFP chief of staff Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. said that as an archipelagic nation, the Philippines should upgrade and beef up its military assets to protect the country’s extensive territory.


    ....... please read the continuation

    Read more: https://opinion.inquirer.net/1…y-upgrading#ixzz8QSt5SesN


    Binondo Church, 1902


    Die Binondo-Kirche, die früher als "Kleine Basilika und Nationalheiligtum des Heiligen Lorenzo Ruiz" und auch als "Pfarrei Unserer Lieben Frau vom Allerheiligsten Rosenkranz" bekannt ist, befindet sich im Bezirk Binondo, Manila, an der Plaza San Lorenzo Ruiz auf den Philippinen.


    Diese Kirche wurde 1596 von dominikanischen Priestern gegründet, um ihren zum Christentum konvertierten Chinesen zu dienen.


    Das ursprüngliche Gebäude wurde 1762 durch britische Bombardierung zerstört.


    An derselben Stelle wurde 1852 eine neue Granitkirche fertiggestellt.


    Durch amerikanische Bombenangriffe am 22. September 1944 wurde das Bauwerk zerstört. Alles, einschließlich der Archive der Pfarrei, verbrannte. Außer den Steinmauern der Kirche und dem achteckigen Glockenturm mit Feuerwerk blieb nichts übrig. Nach dem Krieg mussten sich die Binondo-Gemeindemitglieder mehrere Jahre lang mit einer Kirche ohne Dach begnügen, bis sie in den 1950er Jahren wieder aufgebaut wurde.


    Die heutige Kirche und das Kloster wurden zwischen 1946 und 1971 renoviert.


    Am 23. Juli 1992 genehmigte Papst Johannes Paul II. die Petition zur Erhebung der Binondo-Kirche zur Basilika Minor. Es wurde am 25. Oktober desselben Jahres vom damaligen Erzbischof von Manila, Kardinal Jaime Sin, feierlich als solches erklärt.


    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binondo_Church


    It is with deep regret that the management of Nine Media Corporation (NMC) announces the discontinuation of its news and production operations on all media platforms, branded as CNN Philippines (CNNPH), effective 31 January 2024. The decision follows significant financial losses sustained over the past years, despite rigorous efforts to adapt and innovate in a rapidly evolving and challenging media landscape.


    We are aware of the impact of this closure on our valued employees and talents, we assure all affected staff will be provided with severance packages.


    We express our deepest appreciation to our dedicated team for their unwavering commitment over the years that has elevated CNNPH as a trusted source of news and information in the Philippines.


    With the conclusion of CNNPH's operations, we would like to extend our profound gratitude to our partner, CNN Worldwide/Turner Broadcasting Corporation for their support and understanding.


    To our loyal viewers, thank you for giving us purpose. We are honored to have served you.


    Again, we would like to extend our heartfelt appreciation and gratitude to our employees, partners, and stakeholders. Thank you for the trust.


    https://www.cnnphilippines.com…sation-of-operations.html

    In November of 2021, the Marcos-Duterte tandem was more than just a vehicle for the 2022 presidential elections.


    Public surveys would affirm what operators and interlocutors from all sides long knew: a Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte tandem was an almost-sure ticket to Malacañang for the dictator’s son, and potentially another ticket, too, for the golden child of the strongman from Davao.


    But as easy as Marcos and Duterte – children of notorious strongmen in Philippine politics – strode to victory, so did cracks in their union emerge.


    The slow-burning tensions and micro fissures in the union came to a head on January 28, the last Sunday of a month that felt and seemed endless.


    In Manila, before a crowd of government workers and his supporters, the dictator’s son and namesake spoke of a “Bagong Pilipinas” (literally, a new Philippines).


    Miles away in Davao, before a smaller crowd supposedly from all over the country, former president Rodrigo Duterte went on another of his trademark late night tirades, accusing Marcos of being a drug addict.


    With one of the tickets to Malacañang already spent, the dream team was apparently no more.

    Allies, not friends

    Unlike most presidential and vice presidential tandems in recent Philippine history, the younger Marcos and his vice president had no real personal ties to speak of. People privy to their interactions off-stage and off-camera during the campaign often characterized their relationship as “okay” – but never enough to call it a friendship.

    Theirs was a campaign considerably less hectic than most – a handful of rallies sandwiched motorcades and days without public campaign activities for both candidates. In the final stretch of the campaign, perhaps in response to the huge crowds that Marcos’ chief rival, former vice president Leni Robredo, drew, the Marcos-Duterte “Uniteam” made it a point to also emphasize the mammoth crowds they were attracting.


    There was neither space nor motivation to go the extra mile – after all, they were miles ahead in the polls.


    Marcos has a long, although lackluster political track record: vice governor, then governor while his father was dictator, legislator during their family’s comeback to politics, Ilocos Norte governor again, district representative again, until he finally entered the national scene with a Senate seat. After losing the 2016 vice presidential race, Marcos would disappear from politics but reemerge on social media as a vlogger. His next public post would be president.


    Sara Duterte, meanwhile, spent all her political life in Davao – first running as vice mayor to Mayor Rody in 2007. When he hit the term limit for mayor, Sara stepped in as the city’s chief executive, during which time she infamously punched a sheriff.


    When he left Davao to seek the top seat in Malacañang, Sara again took over city hall.

    But the two kept it chummy – at least chummy enough – during and even after the campaign, interacting casually on stage and releasing vlogs that showed the “lighter” side of the 2022 juggernaut that held the Uniteam together.


    Curiously, still, it was with another Marcos that Sara Duterte had actual, personal ties – Senator Imee Marcos, the dictator’s eldest daughter and the President’s manang or elder sister. The two presidential daughters even appeared in an ad together in 2019, when Imee was seeking a Senate seat.


    Senator Marcos, however, has remained an outsider in her ading’s (younger sibling’s) Malacañang. She’s taken a pseudo-opposition stance under her brother’s administration – criticizing its policies and actions, and promising she’d remain an ally of the Dutertes amid conflict between the Davao-based clan and her cousin, House Speaker Martin Romualdez.


    Another woman political power player also binds the two clans: Gloria Macagapal-Arroyo.

    Arroyo’s power, however, has been clipped in the past year, after being touted by Marcos himself as his “secret weapon” in his foreign visits.

    The Duterte dynasty

    It was the fall of one patriarch that led to the rise of the other – Rodrigo Duterte first entered politics in the aftermath of the people power revolution that ousted the Marcos clan from Malacañang.


    The late Corazon Aquino had wanted Rodrigo’s mother Soledad Duterte, a leading Davao anti-Marcos activist back then, to be interim vice mayor of Davao City. Then 70 years old, Soledad begged off and offered her son Rodrigo as vice mayor instead.


    While his mother is most remembered for helping organize the anti-Marcos groups and leading the Yellow Friday Movement in Davao towards the end of the dictatorship, Rodrigo’s father and Vice President Sara Duterte’s grandfather, Vicente Duterte, is remembered for his political career.


    Vicente was mayor of Danao in Cebu, then became governor of a unified Davao province, after which he became a member of Ferdinand E. Marcos’ Cabinet.

    In 1966, Vicente vacated his gubernatorial seat in the middle of his second term because he was appointed Marcos’ Secretary of General Services or head of the government’s central procurement agency.


    Rodrigo’s sister, the late Jocelyn Duterte, had interactions with former first lady Imelda Marcos, mother of the current President.


    In Duterte’s biography, Beyond Will & Power, author Earl Parreño wrote: “It was the first year of Ferdinand Marcos’ presidency and Imelda was avidly working on her own projects as his First Lady. One of her projects was hosting a debut for the daughters of her husband’s cabinet members and senior officials, who were turning or had just turned 18 that year.”


    Jocelyn, a self-admitted probinsiyana, felt out of place in the glitzy event, she told Parreño in the book. Rodrigo accompanied Jocelyn and another brother, Emmanuel, to debut rehearsals in Malacañang, but “didn’t want to stay long.”


    Rodrigo Duterte would display the same disdain for frivolity as Davao mayor and later, as Malacañang’s chief resident.


    Former president Duterte has made no secret of his admiration for the man his father once worked for and whom his mother bravely stood up against. During his proclamation rally in 2016, Duterte characterized the elder Marcos as the “best president,” if not for his “long” stay as the nation’s top leader.


    The senior Marcos first won the presidency in 1965 and was reelected four years later (the 1935 Constitution, as amended, allowed two four-year terms as president and vice president). In 1972, Marcos placed the country under Martial Law and while it was lifted nine years later, human rights abuses and the theft of public funds remained rampant.


    Economics and human rights experts consider the dictator Marcos’ decades-long hold on power among the darkest days of Philippine democracy. Duterte said he admired Marcos’ agricultural programs.


    Rodrigo Duterte, however, did not seem to have the same high regard for the dictator’s only son and namesake.

    Old man Duterte vs Marcos Jr.

    From the day the Uniteam was announced until the last day of the official campaign period, Duterte did not endorse his daughter’s Uniteam standard-bearer, even as his allies and his own party eventually succumbed to the shoo-in for the 2022 presidential race.


    It was not surprising at all.

    Rodrigo Duterte, after all, had been incensed over daughter Sara’s decision to settle for vice president even if she had led early preference polls for president. The former president, in a November 2021 interview with a pro-Duterte radio host, blamed the Marcos camp for the decision.


    He also claimed that Marcos and his wife, Marie Louise “Liza” Araneta Marcos, had visited him in Malacañang before presidential candidacies were announced. The former president said he thumbed down Bongbong Marcos because he was “pro-communist.” Liza Marcos, now First Lady, was also subjected to Duterte’s ire during that January 2024 Davao prayer rally.


    Days later, still in November 2021, Duterte alluded to a presidential aspirant who uses cocaine, and is a “weak leader” who had nothing but his father’s name to boast of. Duterte did not say who he was alluding to, but said the candidate might win the 2022 polls “hands-down.” Imee Marcos said the clan was “absolutely heartbroken” over Duterte’s remarks.


    Despite the lack of an endorsement, Marcos, the presidential candidate, made vague promises of continuing what the Duterte administration had started.


    The year-and-a-half-old Marcos administration, thus far, hasn’t exactly been a continuation of Duterte’s six years – Marcos vowed a “slightly different” drug war, released long-time Duterte critic former senator Leila de Lima, and has taken a 180-degree turn in the Philippines’ foreign policy, to name a few.


    Under Marcos, Manila has grown much closer to Washington DC, while also strengthening ties with existing and new partners. Its relationship with Beijing – one that Duterte fostered – has festered and turned cold. Philippines-Chinese bilateral ties are a “crossroads,” according to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.


    A familiar Duterte reemerged Sunday evening, January 29.

    Surrounded by a crowd lit by candles, the former president accused the Marcos clan of wanting to stay in power beyond the prescribed term limit, ranted about the International Criminal Court case against him, and claimed the President was a “drug addict.”


    His son, a tattooed surfer who now heads city hall, called on Marcos to resign if he did not have “love and aspirations for your country.”


    Marcos retorted by blaming the older Duterte’s tirades on his use of the highly-addictive fentanyl.


    Meanwhile, Sara Duterte remains a member of the Marcos Cabinet. In a statement on January 29, she said she did not speak to her mayor-brother about his call for the President to resign. She also has not addressed her father’s allegations.

    After long twists and turns in their family histories – and the occasional intersections of their paths – another, more infamous Duterte finds himself at an odd position: leading the charge against his successor Ferdinand Marcos Jr.


    https://www.rappler.com/newsbr…ties-marcos-duterte-ties/

    President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday alleged that former president Rodrigo Duterte is taking fentanyl.


    “I think it’s the fentanyl. Fentanyl is the strongest painkiller you can buy. It is highly addictive and it has very serious side effects and PRRD has been taking the drug for a very long time now,” said Marcos in an ambush interview in Pasay before he left for Vietnam.


    According to Marcos, Duterte has been taking the painkiller for five to six years. Marcos said that it was bound to have some sort of effect on Duterte.


    “I hope his doctors take better care of them, hindi pinapabayaan itong mga nagiging problema,” said Marcos.


    (I hope his doctors take better care of them, this problem should not be ignored.)

    Duterte alleged that Marcos was on the government drugs watch list.


    The former president, known for his vicious war on drugs, said that the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) showed him evidence that Marcos was using drugs.


    Asked about these allegations, Marcos also laughed off the question asking if he took illegal drugs, saying he will not dignify it.

    “I won’t even dignify the question,” said Marcos.


    Read more: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1895880/marcos-says-duterte-on-fentanyl#ixzz8QBJ6Vbq