Yearender
MANILA, Philippines — Just like many other political tandems, the UniTeam alliance between President Marcos and Vice President Sara Duterte didn’t last.
But what surprised many was how quickly the once formidable alliance that won them landslide victories in 2022 turned into a bitter breakup in just a span of two years.
The Vice President launched vicious attacks against her former running mate, even threatening – on live video – to have someone kill him, his wife Liza and cousin Speaker Martin Romualdez, if she would be assassinated.
Malacañang considered Duterte’s midnight tirade last month as an “active threat,” but she claimed her instructions to have her estranged ally Marcos assassinated was a mere “plan without a flesh.”
Analysts believe the feud between the two powerful families is likely to worsen ahead of next year’s midterm elections as both would struggle to win more allies in preparation for the 2028 presidential race.
It was in April when the rift between the Marcoses and the Dutertes became public, when the First Lady admitted to getting offended by the Vice President’s laughing at a joke about the President’s being a drug addict, delivered by the former president in a speech during a rally in Davao City in January.
The First Lady admitted that from then on, she would snub the Vice President on several occasions.
Some were saying the falling out between Marcos and Duterte started in 2023 when the House of Representatives – led by Romualdez – stripped Duterte’s office of its confidential funds.
The House committee on good government and public accountability also conducted a series of hearings on the confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and Department of Education (DepEd), which Duterte headed until July.
Lawmakers particularly questioned the alleged misuse of the 2022 confidential funds of the OVP, including the P125 million she allegedly spent in just 11 days.
Duterte accused the House of carrying out a “well-funded and coordinated political attack” meant to dismantle her chances in the 2028 presidential elections.
The spat between the country’s top leaders became even more obvious in June when Duterte claimed that the UniTeam with Marcos was only for the 2022 elections. In the same month, she announced her resignation as DepEd secretary and vice chair of the government’s anti-insurgency task force. She also skipped Marcos’ third State of the Nation Address (SONA) in July.
Not friends
Duterte told reporters during an interview in September that she and Marcos were not friends to begin with. Marcos said he was “a little dismayed” to hear that Duterte does not consider him a friend.
“I always thought that we were but maybe I was deceived,” the President said during an interview in Vientiane, Laos in October.
At a press conference in October, Duterte claimed she realized that her relationship with Marcos had become “toxic” when she started having thoughts about “cutting his head.”
She also claimed that Marcos “does not know how to be president” and gave him a performance score of one, on a scale with 10 as the best.
Duterte also called the President “Mr. Deception” and even claimed to have a list of the impeachable offenses done by the President.
The Vice President also threatened to dig up the body of Marcos’ father and namesake from the Libingan ng mga Bayani and dump it in the West Philippine Sea.
At an expletive-laced virtual press conference in November, Duterte alleged she was the subject of an assassination plot and that she ordered a member of her security team to kill the President should it succeed.
“I already talked to a person in my security. I told him if I get killed, kill BBM (Ferdinand Marcos), (first lady) Liza Araneta and (the President’s cousin and Speaker) Martin Romualdez. No joke,” Duterte said. “I said, if I die, don’t stop until you have killed them.”
She made the threat after her chief of staff was temporarily detained by legislators after refusing to cooperate with its inquiry.
Marcos responded by vowing to resist a “disturbing” plot of the Vice President to have him assassinated.
He told Duterte not to resort to “tokhang” to stifle the truth behind the alleged misuse of hundreds of millions of pesos in confidential funds handled by her office.
“Tokhang” is a colloquial Visayan term coined by the former president to describe his administration’s campaign to convince drug offenders to surrender. It was more associated with extrajudicial killings, however.
Marcos earlier said the issue would not have reached dramatic proportions had the Vice President answered the “legitimate” questions raised before the Senate and the House regarding the use of confidential funds.
For Duterte, her relationship with Marcos has reached the “point of no return.” But Marcos is not closing his doors on his erstwhile political ally and even rejected impeachment calls on her.
Duterte is currently facing three impeachment complaints.
“Never say never,” Marcos said in an interview in Quezon last month on the state of his relationship with Duterte.
The Philippines has a long history of the vice president calling it quits with the chief executive. Rodrigo Duterte did not have a good relationship with his then vice president Leni Robredo. The relation between the late president Benigno Aquino III and former vice president Jejomar Binay – who were family friends – also turned sour a year before their terms ended.
A credit rating agency has said a prolonged and fierce feud between Marcos and Duterte could pose fiscal and economic risks on the Philippines.
POGO ban
Amid the noise of his confrontation with Duterte, Marcos made a political masterstroke when he announced the abolition of Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGO).
It was a bombshell and the most applauded portion of President Marcos’ third SONA.
In yet another departure from his predecessor, Marcos ordered a ban on POGOs, citing what he called their “grave abuse and disrespect to our system of laws.”
Applause and chants of “BBM! BBM!” greeted the declaration, making him pause in his speech for nearly half a minute. The statement also drew a standing ovation even among personalities associated with the political opposition.
Acknowledging the strong clamor to end POGOs, Marcos said the gambling entities have “ventured into illicit areas furthest from gaming” like financial scamming, money laundering, prostitution, human trafficking, kidnapping, brutal torture and murder.
“I hereby instruct PAGCOR (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.) to wind down and cease the operations of POGOs by the end of the year,” the Chief Executive said.
“The DOLE (Department of Labor and Employment), in coordination with our economic managers, shall use the time between now and then to find new jobs for our countrymen who will be displaced.”
Marcos’ directive is a reversal of the policy of former president Rodrigo Duterte, who allowed the gaming entities to operate because of their contributions to state coffers and to government’s pandemic interventions.
Social risks
Benjamin Diokno, who served as Marcos’ finance secretary for more than a year, had expressed support for a POGO ban due to their “social and reputational risks.”
But Marcos’ decision to launch a crackdown on POGOs did not come overnight. In a media interview in Zurich in 2023, Marcos said he wanted a “good reason” to ban POGOs, pointing out that the problem stems from illegal gaming operators.
Marcos also highlighted the need to determine if the gaming activities have a social cost.
“And if it’s adjudged that there is a social cost, it might not be worth it. The cost might not be worth what they’re paying in taxes anymore,” he said.
Nearly a month before the SONA, the Department of Finance (DOF) released a cost-benefit analysis report stating that the risks linked to POGOs far outweigh the economic benefits of keeping them.
The government is seen to lose P20 billion to P25 billion every year because of the POGO crackdown, but officials claimed it would be compensated by other revenue-raising measures.
Agencies have vowed to assist some 40,000 workers who were displaced by the crackdown on POGOs.
However, not all former POGO employees are expected to move on from their now illegal source of livelihood.
The Marcos administration is anticipating the proliferation of “guerrilla” POGOs after the revocation of their licenses last Dec. 15.