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Original article: https://theconversation.com/feud-between-marcos-and-duterte-families-distracts-from-suffering-of-typhoon-hit-philippines-244552
Politics in the Philippines is beset by clan rivalry at the best of times – but recent events have well and truly blown the lid off a box of snakes. A vice-president making assassination threats towards her own president, while the country reels from its sixth typhoon in a month. Her father, meanwhile – himself a former president – is grilled by the senate about his alleged involvement with “death squads”.
Even by the usual high bar set by Filipino politics, this is chaotic and troubling.
This is a tale of two competing clans that once worked together for mutual benefit. The current president, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr – the son of the former dictator Ferdinand, who ruled from 1965 until 1986 when he fled to Hawaii with his wife and family and much of the country’s treasury – was elected in 2022. He succeeded Rodrigo Duterte who had served as president from 2016-22. Bongbong was a decisive winner with almost 60% of the vote. In part, that victory was enabled by his running mate, now the vice-president: Sara Duterte – Rodrigo’s daughter.
Sara Duterte would have been a formidable opponent for Marcos in the 2022 election – so it was a rather clever move to unite the Marcos and Duterte clans. But Duterte has cut a frustrated figure as vice-president. As in many nations, the Filipino vice-president is a largely ceremonial position without much power or autonomy. And, like her egotistical father, Duterte is not the sort of public figure to sit quietly. Especially not until 2028, for which she currently stands as the frontrunner to be the next president – even after the latest drama.
On Saturday in a video the posted on her Facebook page, Sara Duterte launched an unforgettable broadside against the president:
This country is going to hell because we are led by a person who doesn’t know how to be a president and who is a liar. Don’t worry about my safety. I have talked to a person and I said, if I get killed, go kill Bongbong, Liza Araneta [first lady], and Martin Romualdez [speaker of the House]. No joke. No joke. I said, do not stop until you kill them and he said yes.
Nobody should be under any illusions, the possibility that the daughter of Rodrigo Duterte has potential assassins in her contact book is high. Her family has plenty of previous form as Rodrigo Duterte openly admits to having killed people himself and to having run death squads during his time as the mayor of Davao City in the southern Philippines. When he was president he oversaw a national “war on drugs” that led to 30,000 deaths.
Open revolt
The fragile Marcos-Duterte union began to unravel towards the end of 2023 when Sara Duterte resigned as education minister. Her flagship plan to impose military service in schools failed, despite the country’s recent history of militarism. This left her neutered politically after she also wasn’t given the job of defence minister, which she had craved.
EPA-EFE/Rolex dela Pena
Then came the corruption accusations against Duterte. These came to a head when Romualdez demanded that she explain her spending of ₱612 million (US$30 million/£24 million) in “confidential funds” allocated to her as vice-president and education minister. When questioned about her boss’s alleged misuse of this money, Duterte’s chief of staff, Zuleika Lopez, was jailed for contempt on November 20.
This appears to have been what pushed Duterte past her breaking point last weekend, leading to the extraordinary Facebook post. Duterte was subsequently unrepentant when she appeared at the hearing on November 25, vowing to fight the case brought against Lopez in court.
The chances of Sara Duterte backing down or exiting the political stage quietly are very slim, especially while her father remains in the spotlight. Senate hearings into his drug war have captured national – and global – attention, particularly after Rodrigo Duterte made his death squad admission at the end of October.
One recent highlight was a confrontation between Duterte and one of his most trenchant critics, human rights campaigner and former senator, Leila de Lima. Having spent more than a decade investigating death squad allegations against Duterte, de Lima was jailed in 2017 on drugs charges she says were politically motivated. She was freed on bail in November 2023 and cleared of all charges in June 2024. During the hearings on November 14, Duterte appeared to aim a punching gesture at de Lima, something his supporters have described as “playful”.
Rodrigo Duterte also used the congressional hearing to taunt the international criminal court (ICC), which in 2021 authorised a full investigation into his conducting of the “war on drugs”. The investigation has yet to get properly underway, in large part because Marcos has thus far declined to cooperate. But after Duterte used his appearance at the inquiry to urge the ICC to “hurry up” with its investigation, he appeared to soften his stance: “If that’s the wish of (Duterte), we will not block ICC,” Marcos said, adding that the Philippines would not cooperate with the ICC, “but if he agrees to be investigated, it is up to him”.
What’s next?
Marcos is only halfway through his term, with the next election scheduled for May 2028. But the current situation with the two most powerful political families openly feuding cannot hold until then – something will have to give. It’s most likely to come in the shape of outright political conflict between the two families, perhaps even breaking into violence.
Or, far more unlikely, the two clans could strike a peace deal. But that “deal” – which would most probably be an arrangement to allow Sara Duterte to run for the presidency unopposed from the Marcos clan – would only further weaken the fragile democracy in the Philippines. If her father continues to be protected from the ICC it will also weaken trust in any state institutions attempting to seek accountability.
The country has real problems. This soap opera, while entertaining, doesn’t help flood victims rebuild their homes or those families still seeking justice for the thousands of extrajudicial killings under Rodrigo Duterte’s presidency.
If anything, it only suggests more bad governance is to come.