{"id":6103,"date":"2026-05-24T01:54:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T00:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/balitangklik.com\/?p=6103"},"modified":"2026-05-24T01:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T00:54:08","slug":"opinion-subplots-of-the-sara-trial-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/balitangklik.com\/?p=6103","title":{"rendered":"(OPINION) Subplots of the Sara trial drama"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by <strong>Diego Morra<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>After the May 11 coup at the Senate, which came after Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano pulled the rug from under Sen. Loren Legarda, who was salivating to be Senate President eat, by getting the fugitive Sen. Ronald \u201cBato\u201d de la Rosa to materialize at the chamber to deliver the coup de grace to Sen. Tito Sotto, the stage was set for more betrayals.<\/p>\n<p>With Cayetano getting 13 votes, poor Loren was reduced to an amateur plotter, Matapos saingin ang coup, iba ang kumain. To get de la Rosa out of the Senate after getting him to vote, the infamous \u201cattack\u201d on the Senate had to happen, never mind the faulty CZ firearm utilized by now suspended Sergeant-at-Arms ex-maj. gen. Mao Aplasca led him to discharge only 27 bullets. The investigation showed that despite Cayetano\u2019s \u201cprotective custody\u201d of de la Rosa it did not matter to him that his protection was not needed as Bato simply walked away. Cayetano explained: He didn\u2019t escape. He just left. So, what was the \u201cprotective custody\u201d for? A bad show, indeed.<\/p>\n<p>Next came the promise to start the trial of the impeached world traveler Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio (is she using an Israeli passport? Years ago, the Mossad was exposed as having thousands of Philippine passports for the use of its agents and footmen in the Mideast and elsewhere) forthwith. A grand promise, but beneath the vow are the complex negotiations that could lead to the conviction or acquittal of Sara. It is impossible for Cayetano to deliver an acquittal without a quid pro quo, which points to a deal that Sara must name Alan as her running mate in 2028.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, there is overwhelming clamor to convict Sara and senators have to agonize over their public declarations of Sara\u2019s innocence, despite the evidence presented against her. As Adam Smith used to say: \u201cMercy for the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.\u201d Who are the innocents here? A people in uproar over Sara as the muck-a-muck who treated the money of the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Office of the Vice President (OVP) as her piggybank would not forgive Alan. They may even demand that he be stripped of his Philippine citizenship and shipped to the US to essay the role of a Hillbilly.<\/p>\n<p>Cayetano and his crying lady sister Pia have already lost an enormous volume of political gas in their tank that openly supporting the acquittal of Sara would lead to their conking out for the 2028 race. Honestly, the Duterte political dynasty is losing steam and could not even organize a decent prayer rally in Davao City that it is in position to promise heaven to Alan and the other senators who need enormous sums for their reelection in 2028. Can the Dutertes still trust their backers, from the Southern China crime gangs to the bureaucrats in Beijing to bankroll the \u201cSave Sara from Conviction Campaign.\u201d Chinese President Xi Jingping only delivered 5% of the investments promised to the Dutertes. With Digong incarcerated and Sara proving to be a joke of a national leader, Xi has all the chancers to shop around for a better choice. Alan should take half-a-chance for an audition at Zhongnanhai.<\/p>\n<p>By showing that Sara\u2019s conviction is not far-fetched, Alan could insert himself into the 2028 presidential race and invoke his newfound status as the Ambassador of Christ, a position that would surely be denounced by Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s crony, Pastor Apollo Quiboloy y Carreon of Lubao, Pampanga and Davao City, who has crowned himself as the Owner of the Universe. Surely, the old rich want to get Sara out of the way since they would not relish being led by a President who cannot string her thoughts in three sentences and express them in intelligible English. Alan is the better speaker and doesn\u2019t need a battalion of speechwriters and consultants recruited by Malou Tiquia to make Sara\u2019s daily stream-of-consciousness statements understandable.<\/p>\n<p>Surely, they may look kindly to him and forget the shameless drama at the Senate. Despite him being damaged goods like Sara, they know that, like those figures in topology, Alan can be manipulated and fashioned to look like a sphere, a cube and a number of other figures. Other members of the Duterte clique at the Senate may also be thinking that bayad na sila sa utang nila kay Digong and act as selfish political genes. Then, of course, other forces are at work to put the impeachment trial under a microscope every day. They may also exercise their power to cajole, coax and persuade senators to kick Sara out of the political firmament, especially as pinata for the 2028 elections is dangled.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Unique service projects:<\/strong> Over at San Mateo, Rizal, Mayor Omie Rivera says the local government unit\u2019s partnership with Alpha Phi Omega Fraternity and Sorority and its alumni association in San Mateo is bearing fruit. On Sunday, May 24, 2026, Sister Sallie Licauco, alumna of UP Diliman, celebrates a milestone and to do a good turn on that day, she will be delivering food packs to the people of Barangay Ampid 1 at the Ampid 1 covered court starting at 9 a.m. Barangay residents recently suffered two successive fires. On June 5, members of the APO San Mateo Rizal Alumni Association will spearhead a service project for Brigada Eskwela at the Malanday Elementary School. #<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Diego Morra &nbsp; After the May 11 coup at the Senate, which came after Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano pulled the rug from under Sen. Loren Legarda, who was salivating to be Senate President eat, by getting the fugitive Sen. Ronald \u201cBato\u201d de la Rosa to materialize at the chamber to deliver the coup de [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6104,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editoryal"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/balitangklik.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/balitangklik.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/balitangklik.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balitangklik.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balitangklik.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6103"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/balitangklik.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6105,"href":"https:\/\/balitangklik.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6103\/revisions\/6105"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balitangklik.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/balitangklik.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balitangklik.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balitangklik.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}