VP Sara before the House of her "friends"

Appearing alone before the House of Representatives on August 27, 2024 in order to defend the budget of the Office of the Vice President was an act of extraordinary bravery on the part of Vice President Sara Duterte Carpio. Her own brother Paulo Duterte, a member of the House, was not even there. Her only allies were Davao congressman Sid Ungab and her fairy godmother, former president GMA.

She knew very well that the speaker of the House is the man she used to call by a name I cannot even mention here but which everybody knows. She also knows that the leading stalwart of the minority, France Castro, who filed a criminal charge against her father, the former president, was there. She also came to know that the chairwoman of that day's Senate budget briefing was the fiery Stella Quimpo from Marikina, with whom she has had a past budget confrontation. It must have been virtually an act of a suicidal person walking into a trap. She was practically being crucified by the series of antagonistic questions all focused on her past intelligence funds. But then I don’t blame the solons. It is their sworn duty to scrutinize the national appropriation bill.

Watching the vice president's ordeal before the House committee that afternoon, I did not know if I should pity her or admire her guts, her grit, and her extraordinary gumption. More than 10 members of the House took turns in "roasting" her, both the majority and the minority. This is the vice president of the republic, the number two person in the whole nation. She was attacked left and right, up and down, from all sides of the political spectrum. The chair was not granting any of her requests and was sustaining all motions against her. Not even former president Arroyo was listened to by the chair. The vice president had the temerity to ask that presiding officer Quimbo should be replaced by the chairperson of the finance committee. That was a direct insult to the chairwoman but representative Quimpo parried it with grace.

On the whole, the vice president at that time was on the receiving end of multiple questions which were rather very unsettling to her. How could such a powerful official be likened to a fallen Goliath being attacked by a multitude of antagonistic Davids? I remember that when she was mayor of Davao City, she was credited for the unceremonious ouster of former speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, and of replacing him with GMA. She was reported to have called members of the House to ask for the head of Bebot Alvarez, a friend of her father, but who had the gall to cross her path. She was very influential then. But the other day, she was the helpless common target of "slings and arrows of outrageous fortunes". How destiny can easily change directions from time to time.

VP Sara is a very courageous woman, maybe the bravest among the Duterte children. That is why she was the first to become a mayor and then vice president. She is a lawyer and a very decisive public official. But that afternoon last week, she was reduced to a point when she had to reduce a scripted mantra: On the issue of the intelligence fund, we have received the notice of disallowance from the COA, and we have submitted our explanation. We assure the public of our full cooperation with that unfinished audit" or something to that effect. Then followed it with a mantra repeated a number of times: "Madam Chair, we forgo our opportunity to defend the budget of the OVP and we leave it to the House to decide on our said proposed budget."

As I watched the vice president at that time, I was caught between feelings of pity and irritation. I pity the lady who was practically being ganged upon in the House of her former friends and allies at that time when her father was in power. Today, the former friends are now unfriendly and even antagonistic. As a smart lady, she should have been forewarned that she was walking like a lamb into a den of lions

But as the head of the OVP, by command responsibility, it was her duty to face the people who were waiting with much sense of eagerness to ask a thousand questions and more. And that was how the cookie crumbled.