by Diego Morra
It was expected that Davao City Rep. Polong Duterte would claim, as he usually does, that the Marcos Jr. administration is harassing the Duterte political dynasty and offering millions, if not billions, to his colleagues at the House of Representatives to secure an overwhelming “yes” vote to start the trial of Vice President Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio at the Senate.
Polong is merely parroting the “alternative truth” of Donald Trump, with its emphasis on the unimpeachable version of reality that exists only in his mind. Blandishments for lawmakers could not be sourced from the national budget since “sarado na ang kusina,” the General Appropriations Act (GAA.) Yet, it is fairly easy to weave lies into an ugly script, which is what Polong is currently dishing out. A supposed underling cannot promise millions to lawmakers in exchange of a “yes” vote on impeachment. A “non-entity” as described by retired Ombudsman Samuel Martires cannot order legislators to act as she or he pleases.
Yet, there is an equally disturbing bit of news that has startled netizens and it involves a vlogger identified with the Duterte camp who claimed to have heard it from an unnamed source that the Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) had already declared that all of congressmen and congresswomen voting for impeachment would not get a single vote from INC members. Others have claimed that a strong campaign was already being implemented to “convince” lawmakers to say “no” to the impeachment trial of Sara. Unless the INC declares that it has nothing to do with such a pressure campaign, the reports would persist that the church is supporting Sara despite recent surveys showing that 88% of Filipinos support her trial before the Senate.
The INC had been saying all along that it stands on firm moral grounds in demanding fairness in the handling of corruption issues even as it called for an investigation into the claims of 18 Marines, some of them dismissed and retired, about the delivery of suitcases brimming with cash to top government officials. When the story of the 18 Marines unraveled as many of them were found to be security men of Sara, or were recruited by Mike Defensor of the “Ador Mawanay” notoriety, not much was heard from the INC Sanggunian or its spokesman. Sen. Rodante Marcoleta and his son, who is not a member of the justice panel of the Lower House, are unabashedly Sara partisans. Both are leading INC members, too.
By their actions, ye shall know them, said the Good Book, and frequent foul-ups of the elder Marcoleta, as well as the mistaken manifestations of his son, indicate the undeniable fact that they are not interested in the evidence or the law since they want Sara absolved now, only crash out with the 53-0 vote of the justice panel. The INC cannot argue that it has no influence on the Marcoletas even as the church worked in earnest to win local candidates in the 2025 candidates to back Rodante in exchange for the votes of their members. There is nothing biblical in political horse trading and blackmail. If wheedling all local bets led to the strange victory of P2,000 electric subsidy champion Rodante, pressuring congressmen to vote “no” to the impeachment trial in exchange for votes in 2028 amounts to blackmail.
To be honest and truthful, the INC must declare its stand on the impeachment issue. Is the INC for the trial or against it? What the Filipino people need to learn is how the INC can justify its position in the face of the mountain of evidence that the Sara never debunked in three clarificatory hearings conducted by the justice committee of the House of Representatives? She was given the floor to controvert the allegations in the impeachment complaints but she chose to snub the proceedings, perhaps thinking that it was beneath her dignity to attend the “kangaroo court.” The 53-0 vote of the justice committee may be assailed by Polong but how can he explain her sister’s drubbing? Even as the Supreme Court (SC) continues to wage battle against dictionaries on what “forthwith” means, it can no longer justify any delay in the process.
The Sara camp can say whatever it wants to divert the attention of the people from the looming impeachment trial but it cannot erase the fact that Sara never respected the process and demanded that the complaint be dismissed outright. For a lawyer worth her salt, Sara should have presented her evidence to destroy the allegations of Ramil Madriaga, burn the videos that threatened the President, First Lady and former Speaker Martin Romualdez, and belied the findings of the Commission on Audit (COA) on her misused confidential funds (CF), her disallowances and the billions of unused pesos parked at the Department of Education (DepEd.)
The clashing statements of Sara and her husband about the P6.77 billion in her bank accounts and the nearly P3-billion that “passed through” their accounts and not recorded in their Statements of Assets and Liabilities and Net Worth (SALNs) are glaring proof that a mysterious funds pipeline made Sara swim in cash. If the INC were also interested in the truth, as any church should be, then it must raise the very same hard questions it has been throwing at the administration. It hasn’t put Sara’s feet to the fire but insists that perjured witnesses be heard. Something doesn’t square in the INC’s contentions. Just like Sara’s scripted peroration that sounds like an allocution.#