by Diego Morra
Whoever in the Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio camp thought of permitting Davao City Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Zimmerman Duterte to be witness on the 30th day of the impeachment trial of his own sister should be ready not only to be cursed but also to have his or her eyes crushed by a flying laptop. It was already a blunder for Baste to clarify that GenCorp actually won 19 contracts from the Davao City government worth P34.2-million when the files showed only 15 valued at P10-million, but it became a political disaster when he claimed that he did not know that Sara was a stockholder of GenCorp. and added that he would have cancelled the awards had he been formally informed that the deals violated self-dealing and flayed the rules on conflict of interest.
The 116-million Filipinos living today were not born yesterday and many of them believed Harry S. Truman when he said “show me a politician who became rich in office and I’ll show you a crook.” Truman left the White House hurriedly to catch a train to reach his home, and his plight became the argument for presidential pensions in the US. The only business of the Truman fell on hard times and in his retirement, the only money he gets come from his military pension. The man who coined the maxim “the buck stops here,” right at the Resolute Desk, was not a grifter like Donald Trump but a champion of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s bid to strengthen the US middle class and avoid the social and economic pestilence wrought by the plutocrats who plotted to oust Roosevelt.
The Dutertes are a light year removed from Truman and they belong to a universe where FDR cannot exist. Baste’s many responses during direct examination showed why the Dutertes cannot be truthful at all. Baste denied making a statement that the impeachment was actually a ploy to derail Sara’s march to Malacanang, only to be shown right to his face the statement he issued on Sept. 21, 2026, saying precisely that the proceedings were designed to thwart Sara’s presidential big was as true as the sun always rising in the east. His excuse for rebuking the court? It was his perception eight days before his appearance and, naturally, Duterte shills, including the corpulent one, prepared the tasteless statement. In effect, he was saying: Blame them, not me. Thus, sayeth the messenger of ill-omen.
For all his bravado and his pompous declarations that he is willing to shed blood to fight corruption, bring his father Rodrigo home from his better lodgings at the Scheveningen Prison in The Hague, bring Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. to heel and resign his post so that justice, prosperity and equality may reign over the land, the Baste that millions watching the proceedings saw was a mere simulacrum, a homunculus as it were, and hardly an appropriate replacement for the unfit, incompetent and unstable Sara. He could not shake off the lingering suspicion that GenCorp may actually be a corporation organized not only to monopolize the food and catering needs of the Davao City Hall but to wipe away the competition in the food sector, as well as the convenience store business, the doughnut shops, the transportation sector and others profitable businesses in the city that the Dutertes describe as at par or better than Singapore.
Surely, televiewers must have suffered cervicalgia (pain in the neck) and cephalalgia (headache) when Baste said he did not know that Sara was a stockholder and director of GenCorp. No GenCorp document showed she had special interest in the company and that her name never appeared in the bidding documents for City Hall deals. Worse, he even had the audacity to clear her sister’s name by declaring she did not ask for any favor as regards GenCorp., a company that is not even five years old but has already racked up revenues in excess pf P1-billion. Those who deceive do not have to be truthful and this is where Baste’s theory of feigned innocence collapses. Political dynasties like the Dutertes operate as power centers that organize businesses farmed out to cronies and enforcers. Sara does not need to tell Baste what to do because the entire enterprise is managed from the common dining table.
Baste and businessman and trusted Duterte ally Jaime T. Cruz are friends and they are partners in several companies like Sara. Cruz is a great pal of Rodrigo Duterte, the way Michael Yang, Bong Go’s dear friend, was also a consiglieri when Pharmally was profiting immensely and monopolizing the supply of medicines, vaccines, personal protective equipment (PPEs), masks and face shields. The Dutertes and the Cruzes, the Yangs and the Gos were inextricably linked to one another, and the second ring of businesses like those of the Gos and Glenn Escandor, also bit off more than they could really chew, partaking of flood control projects that eventually were subcontracted to the bigger players in the DPWH circuit.
The Davao City mayor also proved that he was either negligent or simply lazy enough not to check on the projects awarded by his all-powerful City Hall bids and awards committee. Curiously, only a few of the contracts were given the green light by the committee and the rest chopped up into tiny bits that can be parceled out favored suppliers. In short, the bids panel exercises great leeway to dispatch taxpayer money to selected suppliers or solitary bidders. Comically. Baste told the court 19 awards in five years were not a large number. But the rules said proponents should have been long-standing suppliers but GenCorp was organized less than five years ago. Baste’s response was that the panel revised the rules. It doesn’t square. Baste cannot shirk responsibility for Sara’s using GenCorp to gain profits for herself, Cruz and the other special interests linked to the company. He admitted that he did not examine the documents and could not say whether GenCorp Industries submitted an omnibus sworn affidavit as a bidder for the Davao City contracts.
He can feign innocence about the 18 companies where Sara has equity. according to her Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALNs), but this goes against public knowledge in Davao City. Baste also admitted that he and his brother, Davao Rep. Paolo Duterte are stockholders of Chinese Gen Bee Foods Corp., which is in the same line of business as GenCorp. Yet, he denied being aware that Jaime T. Cruz was also a stockholder of GenCorp. Aside from behaving like Sara defense counsel Michael Poa, who didn’t know the goings on art DepEd when he was chief of staff, Baste may be setting the stage for someone to take the fall. He appointed Atty. Tristan Dwight Domingo to sign contracts on behalf of the Davao City LGU. Aside from being the assistant city administrator, he is also the project manager for the city’s bus project.#