Key figures of the Duterte group are slowly being picked off one by one. This is happening while their hero, Vice President Sara Duterte, is losing her fight at the Senate impeachment court and in the court of public opinion.

It began with the ouster of a pro-Duterte Congressman from Cavite who brazenly called for the ouster of the Marcos junior administration.

It was followed by the jailing of former Congressman Mike Defensor and the filing of libel charges against Lawyer Levi Baligod, who supported the so-called 18 Marines who exposed the alleged payoffs made by their former employer, fugitive Congressman Zaldy Co, in connivance with former Speaker Martin Romualdez.

Former Congressman Mike Defensor was jailed after being implicated in the alleged plunder case filed against Senator Rodante Marcoleta. Marcoleta’s case stemmed from Marcoleta’s admission that he received 75 million pesos from Defensor but failed to report the funds as election donations.

This was followed by what I described as a “mopping operation” at the House of Representatives against legislators who did not vote to impeach Vice President Sara Duterte. All of these Duterte political elites lost their respective chairmanships and committee postings.

And then, this: former president Rodrigo Duterte’s presidential adviser on political affairs, Jacinto Paras, and pro-Duterte Congressman Leviste were implicated in an alleged and desperate “honey trap operation” reportedly intended to destabilize the Marcos junior administration.

Then came news that a close Duterte associate revealed Senator Bato dela Rosa’s location two weeks ago, nearly leading to the fugitive senator’s arrest. Now the U.S. has formally requested the extradition of Apollo Quiboloy, a very close friend and business associate, on human trafficking and fraud charges.

Quiboloy can’t be immediately extradited because he’s facing several charges here locally. The law is very specific about this—before he can be extradited, the courts must resolve his cases here first. If any Quiboloy supporter sees any evidence that Malacañang is lifting a finger to honor this extradition request, it would immediately turn political and lead to a serious and destabilizing incident.

All of this is happening because the Duterte group has already lost its political battle against the administration. They tried several times to call for people power, but nada. Even with the participation of a major religious group, they couldn’t muster enough strength to oust this administration.

The reason for their failure? Their lack of what we call moral standing. How would they succeed in ousting this administration when the very ones who are salivating to replace the leadership are themselves corrupt? To be precise, more corrupt than those they accuse.

At the impeachment court, clearly, evidence is showing how VP Sara Duterte treated her intelligence funds. When she was then DepEd secretary, Duterte treated our treasury virtually as her own bank. Fantabulous amounts were requested under bogus intel plans, and for what? To counter students? WTF!

Sources say Duterte’s elite clique still has billions to spend against this administration. This is despite several social media posts claiming that Sara Duterte herself is losing money fast because the kahon de pera is being managed right now by the former president’s common-law wife, Honeylet. Everybody knows that Sara and Honeylet are not seeing eye to eye.
Honeylet, several pro-Duterte claim, is close to Senator Bong Go’s faction.

Remember those keys? PRRD allegedly decided to give them to Honeylet. That explains why Honeylet is the one handling and managing the ICC case of the former president.

They are said to be the keys to the secret bank vaults the Dutertes have, which reportedly contain billions of dollars. Some say those billions were spirited out of the country as part of the so-called “gold hoard,” which close Duterte associates had their hands on during the pandemic. This information is still unverified.

It seems that enemies of the Duterte elite clique are also giving Duterte’s financiers a very, very hard time. Several of these businessmen have been identified, and those with active or prospective deals with this administration have been given the proverbial boot. Now, if these people expect to recover two years from now, they need their champion to be free of her political debacle now.

Or, better yet, disengage with the Duterte elite clique and transfer allegiance to the second possible presidential successor.

Unfortunately, things are not looking up for Sara. Her defense team looked like harangue law students trying to find a way out of the mess their client made with public funds. They are running out of legal tricks to stop the prosecution’s onslaught, led by Atty Lorna Kapunan, a grizzled, brilliant trial veteran.

So, even if the surveys indicate that Sara continues to dominate the list of people the masses want for president in 2028, the Duterte elite clique would find it extremely difficult to mount a campaign similar to the one her father, PRRD, ran. Masyadong mainit if one is close to the Duterte clique.

First off, with the survey ratings indicating a possible statistical tie with Naga City mayor Leni Robredo, Duterte’s possible electoral victory is slipping from her every minute.

People are now realizing that what Sara Duterte represents is a despicable form of pseudo-brilliance, what we call ningning. She is all bluster, with no visible performance. She is all heat, with no warmth. She’s like that demon described by Saint Michael who dressed like an angel. Credit that to the trolls.

For Sara, this is not a cause célèbre. Imagine you’re only at the top because of your troll army? It’s like deluding yourself into thinking you’re popular, when the fact is, only a fraction of the population still supports the Dutertes.

The only reason why people gravitate to her is simply that she’s the logical antithesis to Marcos Junior. People hate this president and his ilk so much that they are expressing it by expressing support behind his main nemesis.

What is still good is that the shift is not by a sheer huge number, simply because people are seeing her as who she really is.

Now, with uncertainty of an electoral win by 2028, who would dare openly support her candidacy, knowing full well that it would eventually lead to misfortune for the financier?

Anyway, what’s happening reminds one of what happened to groups that failed in their political adventurism. Compared with previous groups that tried, the Duterte group is the first to be targeted by what I called the “rainbow coalition”—an uncanny, unwritten alliance of former enemies—the Marcoses and civil society. And the Duterte group has no one else to blame but their principal—former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte, who created so much ruckus and achieved what no other political personality in Philippine history had—unifying a group of Filipinos against him.

Oops, I’m sorry. I’m gravely mistaken. Duterte is the only one who managed to unite both local and foreign political forces against him and what he represents.

The Dutertes forgot that there’s a time for everything, a time to reap and sow. There’s always a threshold for every single act in this world.

The insanity caused by this pretender has wrecked this country and even worsened the people’s plight. Time is up. The reckoning begins. As many people say, and possibly believe, reap what you sow.