All the president’s women

Public confessions dished out right in the halls of Congress as testimonies made under oath – even from self-proclaimed whistleblowers brought out of their jail cells – have been hogging the headlines. Adding to these scandalous revelations was information culled from unfiltered sources in media interviews.

These whistleblowers suddenly found themselves no longer fearful or timid to come out with what they believe was the truth. Or did they have an epiphany when they suddenly realized what they failed to understand in the past and have become conscious of only now, or something that they finally realized is the right thing to do. Or it is just an after-thought to tell all?

While these sworn testimonies at the congressional hearings were not exactly the gospel truth, it is more difficult to discern the “he said, she said” stories being peddled openly. For us in media, it becomes doubly hard work to do fact checking. It is not just for the sake of fairness and balance but for accuracy and the truth to prevail.

Via zoom interview last week over dzRH radio, a former member of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) echoed accusations against KOJC leader Pastor Apollo Quiboloy. A certain Arlene Stone, who claimed to be speaking in behalf of other former KOJC members now residing in the United States, volunteered the “information” that Quiboloy allegedly had “gifted women” to former president Rodrigo Duterte and other officials.

“Based on my information, (some members of the pastoral) were being offered to (persons) very close to Quiboloy, like for example president Duterte. If he (Duterte) likes one of the members of the pastoral, Quiboloy would grant it,” Stone declared. As a matter of fact, she further claimed, one of those purportedly offered to Mr. Duterte is still at the KOJC compound in Davao City, from where it took two weeks for our police authorities to flush out Quiboloy from hiding.

Quiboloy has been charged with sexual assault and human trafficking cases here in our country and in the US as well, not to mention the string of other criminal charges filed against him. Moreover, there are ongoing parallel congressional “inquiries in aid of legislation” that involve ex-president Duterte, Quiboloy, et.al.

“A fake witness. Ms. Stone is a certified ‘Marites,’ a pathological liar to the bone,” Mark Tolentino, one of legal counsels of Quiboloy, countered in a text message to The STAR.

Naturally, loyal defenders of Mr. Duterte were likewise irritated over the latest narratives about women “gifted” by the former president’s spiritual adviser. “Nakakatawa mga storetelling a lie nila,” former executive secretary Salvador Medialdea quipped with disgust.

Mr. Duterte, on the other hand, has publicly admitted to being a womanizer. He still lives with his partner, Honeylet Avanceña, with whom he has a grown daughter. His wife, Elizabeth Zimmerman, is the mother of Vice President Sara Duterte, Davao City Rep. Paolo “Polong” Duterte and Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte.

Another “Marites” was outed by former Cebu City mayor Tomas Osmeña, who revealed in a TV interview last Friday that he was bluntly told: “Don’t touch the president’s women.” Without disclosing his source of information, Osmeña claimed he received the off-limits warning from an unnamed official to whom he complained in 2018 about then police colonel Royina Garma being assigned as Cebu city police chief.

Methinks, the 79-year-old ex-president Duterte is tickled pink over talks on his much touted machismo and virility for women thrown his way. His closest friend and ally, who requested confidentiality, described his “Boss” as a man who wants to be “challenged” when it comes to trying to woo women he takes a liking to.

“He abhors being offered a partner. That I have known from the beginning,” the loyal Duterte ally intimated, adding: “Yung bang liligawan niya ang gusto hanggang sa nababasted para may rason siyang kumanta ng romantic songs.”

Our Davao City-based correspondent Edith Regalado laughed and could not agree more. Edith knows Mr. Duterte inside out. After all, she has been covering him for the past four decades already, since he was a struggling prosecutor to his being mayor of Davao City for several terms.

She would not be persuaded though to name all the girls Mr. Duterte loved before.

As of this writing, the usually foul-mouthed Mr. Duterte has kept quiet at his retirement residence in Davao City. At the PDP-Laban convention held in his home city last Friday night, Mr. Duterte did not mention anything about his supposed peccadilloes even while he was still in public office. Or is he trying to appear as a gentleman not to dignify talks that involve women’s honor?

But Mr. Duterte could be as repugnant to the point of being called “misogynist” at the height of his quarrel with former senator Leila de Lima, who was chairman then of the Commission on Human Rights. She haled him to court first for human rights violations in the alleged Davao Death Squad killings when he was still mayor. During her term as senator, De Lima led the Senate investigations into the reported extrajudicial killings (EJKs) of suspected drug addicts and druglords. She got detained for more than six years, beyond the term of Mr. Duterte, for illegal drugs cases filed against her. All cases were subsequently dismissed by the courts, one after the other.

The EJK cases, however, hang in the balance at the International Criminal Court (ICC). Mr. Duterte, VP Sara, et. al. are accused of crimes against humanity and are awaiting formal investigation by the ICC.

Then here comes former Iloilo mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog, who was among those in Mr. Duterte’s “narco” list. Arriving after seven years of self-exile in the US, Mabilog announced his readiness to testify against Mr. Duterte before the ICC at The Hague.

Since his daughter VP Sara broke away from the present administration, Mr. Duterte has ostensibly stopped his public rants at President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. Amid the “Marites” about all the president’s women, he seems to be just relishing it.