The Dutertes: betrayal and abandonment

For almost a year now, the entire machinery of the government has been out to destroy the political career of Vice President Sara Z. Duterte. According to former senator Leila de Lima and others who recently filed an impeachment case against the vice president, Sara deserves all these investigations due to her actions and pronouncements. The same politicians who sponsored and defended VP Sara's budget in 2022 and 2023 are now the ones picking it apart and questioning her office's spending.

We all know this is how politics is in the Philippines; one moment you are at the helm of power, the next you get investigated. Many political pundits say that this is now the end of the Duterte political bloodline, and soon there will be no more Dutertes in Philippine politics.

What people often forget is that in many instances, politics is tied to history, and the history of the Dutertes, while often a story of betrayal and abandonment by political allies, is also a story of political survival.

Sara Duterte's great (3X)-grandmother, Francisca Dionisia Duterte, can be considered the first in her line to be abandoned. Falling in love with a married man, one of the richest Chinese mestizos in Cebu, Francisca Duterte had at least one child, Isabelo, who she had to bring up alone because the man who fathered her son was married.

Isabelo Duterte's grandson, Vicente, was appointed by President Sergio Osmeña as acting mayor of Danao, then and now the bailiwick of the Duranos. And while the Dutertes and Duranos are related, Ramon Durano was not at all happy with Duterte’s appointment. There is a family lore that claims that Ramon Durano visited acting Mayor Duterte's home and in no uncertain terms threatened him and his entire family with violence if he did not leave Danao immediately.

Whether true or not, it cannot be denied that the whole family left Danao for good and later moved to Davao City. Vicente Duterte would become the governor of the former Davao Province, backed by a cousin, Senator Alejandro Almendras. Vicente would then be appointed on December 30, 1965 as secretary of the Department of General Services by President Ferdinand Marcos.

However, despite supposedly having the support of both Almendras and Marcos, their camps were already starting to betray him. Due to Vicente's support of a political rival of Almendras', Vicente soon became politically isolated and lost his congressional bid in 1967. It is said that the sting of betrayal from both Marcos and his own relative resulting in his defeat led to his sudden death a year later.

Sara’s maternal grandfather, Godofredo Zimmerman, and her great-grandfather Eleno Roa, experienced abandonment and betrayal, as well. Godofredo’s father, American teacher George John Zimmerman, abandoned his mother when he returned to the US to enlist in the army during World War I. Zimmerman never returned to the Philippines and settled down in America with his new family. On the other hand, Eleno Roa was also abandoned by his biological father because he was supposedly the love child of a married Spanish mestizo.

On many sides of her family, it seems that Sara Duterte's history has been marked by countless abandonments and betrayal.

We are now simply seeing another chapter of this. While their political opponents are rejoicing in the ongoing persecution of the vice president, Inday Sara has decided to fight back. It is unclear for now if the political bloodline of her family has become stronger with each generation and is said to be strongest with her.

It is still unclear if she, personally, and the Duterte clan, in general, will survive the multi-pronged attacks from various opponents. What is undeniable and a historical fact is that this is not the first time the Dutertes have experienced being betrayed and abandoned politically. Time will tell, and history will once more prove that everything today is but a repeat of yesterday.