News Roundup 06 February 2024
Feb 06, 2024 • 5 min Read
Marcos and Duterte clan alliance ruptures | PHILSTAR.COM – MANILA, Philippines — Less than two years after Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos was swept to power, his family’s alliance with his firebrand predecessor Rodrigo Duterte has been shattered.
Accusations of drug abuse, threats to split the country and rumours of a coup plot have destroyed the public facade of unity between the Marcos and Duterte families, which joined forces for the 2022 elections.
Philippine politics has long been a family business with elite clans ruling the country, holding onto positions for generations by dishing out favours, buying votes or resorting to violence.
Families often form alliances of convenience with others to win and maintain power — but those relationships can sour when political ambitions collide or promises are not kept.
Marcos, the son and namesake of the country’s former dictator, won the presidency by a landslide following a massive social media misinformation campaign whitewashing his family’s history.
His vice presidential running mate Sara Duterte, the daughter of the former president, helped him win vital support from her family’s home island of Mindanao.
The Marcos and Duterte clans were widely expected to fall out eventually as they began to shore up their rival support bases and secure key positions ahead of the mid-term elections in 2025 and presidential elections in 2028.
But few observers predicted that it would happen so soon or so spectacularly.
Full Story at: Marcos and Duterte clan alliance ruptures | Philstar.com
House and Senate at an ‘impasse’ after senators take exception with loyalty pledge | PHILSTAR.COM – MANILA, Philippines — Despite pronouncements of a “ceasefire” between the two chambers of Congress, members of the House of Representatives and the Senate continue to engage in a word war following the lower chamber’s adoption of a resolution upholding its honor and integrity against the “intense assault” from the Senate.
On Tuesday, House Senior Deputy Speaker Dong Gonzales defended the recently passed House Resolution 156, which expresses the lawmakers’ support for House Speaker Martin Romualdez after senators supposedly violated the principle of inter-parliamentary courtesy and interfered with the House’s affairs.
In January, Senate publicly opposed the ongoing signature drive for the People’s Initiative (PI) campaign to amend the 1987 Constitution and some of its members have accused the House, including Romualdez, of orchestrating and funding the initiative.
Tensions escalated when Sen. Imee Marcos named Romualdez as the mastermind behind the PI initiative, accusing him of offering a P20 million reward for district representatives that can clinch enough signatures.
While Romualdez has repeatedly denied this, he has also admitted to taking on an “advisory” role for proponents of the PI campaign led by the pro-Chacha group PIRMA.
Since then, Romualdez has reached out to Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri to express the House’s willingness to work with senators in passing a Senate resolution that focuses on amending the economic provisions of the Charter.
Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri — who last week claimed that the two chambers of Congress were now in a “ceasefire” after trading barbs on the PI campaign — said during Monday’s plenary session that the House and the Senate are now, again, at odds.
Full Story at: House and Senate at an ‘impasse’ after senators take exception with loyalty pledge | Philstar.com
Rodrigo Duterte gets info he may be arrested at any time – Harry Roque | INQUIRER.NET – MANILA, Philippines — Ex-presidential spokesperson Harry Roque claimed that former president Rodrigo Duterte told him about receiving information that he may be arrested at any time in light of the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation of his administration’s drug war.
According to Roque, when Duterte told him about it, he was not able to sleep.
“You know what, I have a confession. I didn’t sleep. Because Father Digong called me and said, he got information that he might be arrested at any time,” Roque said in Fiilipino during his Facebook live on Sunday, Feb 4.
“My instinct was to run to Davao [City]. However, I also told myself: What can I do if I run there. But I couldn’t really sleep,” he added, without elaborating.
He then made remarks attacking supporters of the opposition, specifically of former Vice President Leni Robredo, whom they called “pinklawan” (a combination of Filipino words pink and yellow).
Full Story at: Rodrigo Duterte gets info he may be arrested at any time – Roque (inquirer.net)
‘We’re not corrupt’: Galvez feuds with Tulfo at Senate hearing | INQUIRER.NET – MANILA, Philippines — Presidential peace adviser Carlito Galvez Jr. fumed on Tuesday after Senator Raffy Tulfo alleged that the decommissioning of former rebels is tainted with corruption.
“Don’t tell us that we’re corrupt,” a visibly irked Galvez said during the hearing of the Senate Committee on National Defense.
He was responding to Tulfo, who alleged during the hearing that there was corruption in the decommissioning of former members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
The senator cited Galvez’s report to the committee that there were 26, 132 decommissioned combatants, but they only surrendered 4,625 weapons to the government.
These combatants received P100,000 cash each, according to Galvez.
Tulfo questioned this “big discrepancy,” noting that the cash grants given to the surrenderees had already amounted to P2.6 billion.
“There’s corruption here, whether you like it or not,” Tulfo said, speaking partly in Filipino.
“The discrepancy is big. You have to investigate. Someone should be held responsible. There’s big amount of government money that is missing,” he added.
When Galvez remarked that they were not corrupt, Tulfo clarified that he was not referring to the peace adviser but to some people within his organization who might be involved in corruption.
Full Story at: Tulfo, peace adviser Galvez clash at Senate hearing (inquirer.net)
