On January 29, 2024, during one of his speeches Former President Rodrigo Duterte called his successor Ferdinand Marcos Jr. a drug addict, “ May drug addict tayong presidente” Said by Duterte. He continues by saying that when he was a former mayor in Davao City, The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency showed evidence that proved the current president is in fact a drug addict.
With all of this happening, the question in the mind of the people is why are such conflicts occuring, are there any specific reasons? Is there truth to the things said publicly? Can there be personal and political motivations for such actions? It’s a tale of members of two strong political dynasties and the ties that bonded them over the years and how it’s slowly severing at the moment.
Before the 2022 presidential elections, the Marcos-Duterte were frontrunners to win it all as new leaders of our country’s, different public surveys would affirm that. As the tandem are able to lead all major surveys from Filipinos it was a consensus Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte will reign supreme in this upcoming elections. Both parties have done favors for each other, it will be remembered that during the time of Rodrigo Duterte, he allowed the burial of the late Ferdinand Marcos in the “libingan ng mga bayani” after so many years of former president’s not allowing to do so. Such favors were also given by the Marcoses showing full support for the reign of Rodrigo Duterte. As most expected the tandem won easily with such high margins that it seems like they’ll head strong for a long time, however there’s always cracks to every relationship.
It was clear that these two weren’t really friends, more of allies. Behind the cameras this duo did not have much interactions, and people around them would describe their relationship as okay and not friend-like. Still they kept this ship together and succeeded throughout the early years of their leadership. In actuality there were minor differences and issues that were already occurring behind the scenes, the Uniteam movement wasn’t necessarily endorsed by Sara Duterte’s Father, Former President Rodrigo Duterte. According to him, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was a weak president and would not be suitable for the job, aside from that he saw that Sara Duterte led polls for presidential candidates, even more than those of BBM which was why he wasn’t fully in favor of the decision to settle for vice president.
Under Marcos, the Philippines has grown its ties with the United States and other existing/new countries. Along with that however is a decreasing relationship with China, which Rodrigo Duterte fostered, it was a crossroad for the government.
This could be a triggering reason for the Former President, as he announces such things in his speech. Despite that relationship between Sara and Marcos seems unaffected as the vice president stays at Marcos cabinet despite the things said. Time will tell how successful the tandem will be, will they make the Philippines a better place to live in or make it worse, let’s watch as it unfolds right in our eyes.
