What fate awaits the Dutertes?

November 29, 2024

MANILA – Former president Rodrigo Duterte warned the public about messing with his daughter, Sara Duterte, in a speech before a gathering of businessmen in October 2018. Five months later in March 2019, he told a gathering of barangay officials that “Inday is worse than me,” referring to his daughter. Duterte disclosed that he “could not control his daughter” as she was “really hard to deal with.”

In January 2024, self-confessed Davao Death Squad assassin Arturo Lascañas told the media that he submitted a 186-page affidavit to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which he said contains information on the involvement of VP Sara in the extrajudicial killings in Davao City. Lascañas disclosed that it was the Vice President who initiated “Oplan Tokhang” when she was Davao City mayor in 2012, and she did so in tandem with Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, who was then the city police chief. Lascañas also revealed that the total number of extrajudicial killings in Davao City is more or less 10,000. Lascañas then called on President Marcos to be careful and not to trust the Duterte father and daughter whom he branded as “traitors.”

Just a month ago on Oct. 18, 2024, VP Sara threatened to dig up the remains of Mr. Marcos’ dictator father and throw them into the sea. She revealed that she “imagined herself cutting off his head,” referring to the President.

And then last Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, VP Sara went on a verbal rampage, disclosing that she gave orders that, in the event she is killed, an assassin she hired would kill Mr. Marcos, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and House Speaker Martin Romualdez.

If Duterte’s personality is an indication of the temperament inherited and grown into by his children, then