by jariusbondoc | Aug 5, 2026 | Gotcha
Mere slight rains flood up our communities and highways. Employees and students can’t get to work and school. Homes and shops are muddied. Roads disintegrate. Rivers rise, bridges collapse. Traffic jams. Tap water turns murky. Electricity conks out, and with it cellular service too.
Feigning concern, officials suspend school and government work. They publicize themselves leading rescue and relief work. They distribute food, medicines, cash aid. All from taxes, not their pockets. Yet tarpaulins picture them as do-gooders.
Stricken folk become dependent on the local officials. They begin to owe them debts of gratitude, electing them and their kinsmen forever.
In truth, it’s political dynasties that are causing the breakdown of the Philippines. Eighty-two percent of lawmakers are dynasts. They enact annual budgets from which to plunder and self-promote. Favorite pork barrels are roadworks, flood controls, health care and cash ayuda.
Kinsmen control provincial capitols, and city and municipal halls. Seventy-one of 82 governors, or 87 percent are dynasts. So are 113 of 149, or 75 percent of city mayors. Also, 910 of 1,493, or 61 percent of municipal mayors. Vice governors, vice mayors, provincial board members and city and municipal councilors are also dynasts.
The President and Vice President are dynasts.
Non-dynasts aren’t necessarily angels. But there’s bigger temptation for dynasts to steal. Spouses, parents and offspring, siblings and cousins are able to control public funds. Cashiers, accountants and auditors are their appointees and recommendees. Easy to keep secret their thievery.
The Supreme Court outlawed pork barrels in 2013. Still, political dynasts awarded themselves “budget insertions.”
Fake, faulty, overpriced flood works have been exposed as the biggest scam ever. It began as ghost dredging of lakes and rivers in the mid-2000s to 2015. In 2016-2025 budget and public works officials expanded to river and seawall construction, resulting in P1.7-trillion kickbacks for dynasts and bureaucrats.
Sleaziest flood projects were in Bulacan’s first district. Investigators uncovered P5-billion ghost dike constructions in Calumpit, Hagonoy, Malolos and Baliuag towns from which four senators pocketed 40 percent commissions. Oriental Mindoro’s first district came in second. The ombudsman filed malversation and graft raps for P289.5-million substandard road dikes in Naujan town.
In Davao Occidental, a P179.5-million ghost flood work led to indictment of DPWH officials and contractor Sarah Discaya’s St. Timothy Construction Corp. Declared substandard in La Union was a P89.7-million canal dug by Silverwolves Construction of congressmen brothers Eric and Edvic Yap.
In Ilocos Norte, flood control allocations skyrocketed by over 1,700 percent from P463.67 million to P8.72 billion. Projects in Leyte grew five-fold from P2.17 billion to P10.06 billion. In the Cordillera mountains, the multibillion-peso racket was in flimsy roadside rock nettings, cat’s eyes and safety roller barriers.
Lacking critical thinking, Filipinos can’t understand that dynasts cause their misery.
In 2018, Filipino 15-year-olds were the lowest among 79 countries in Reading Comprehension. They couldn’t write a single sentence from a paragraph they read in their chosen language under the Program for International Student Assessment.
In PISA 2022, Filipinos were 77th of 81 countries. Not much difference from 2018. The plunder by political dynasts worsened during that period.
Filipino fourth-graders, aged 9-10, were lowest of 58 countries in the 2019 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. In ASEAN, Filipino fifth and eight graders fared worse than counterparts in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam – ahead only of Cambodia.
PISA examinees in 2022 and 2018 are now aged 19 and 23. One can just imagine how they are lagging in free college, or if they’re gainfully employed at all. And what of their offspring, if any?
TIMSS takers in 2019 are now in Grade 11. They were promoted because the public school system is a conveyor belt that leaves no one behind. They must give way to the next batch of classroom seat occupants.
Child malnutrition pervades. One in four kids aged five and below is stunted or bansot. One in seven is underweight, payatot. One in 18 is wasting, putot.
The situation is haven for political dynasts. The duller the voters, the longer the dynasties stay.
Bongbong Marcos made no mention of dynasties in his State of the Nation Address the other Monday. Perhaps he knows that his congressman-son Sandro Marcos’ biggest project since 2025 is a fake anti-dynasty bill.
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by jariusbondoc | Jul 31, 2026 | Gotcha
Reports tie Martin Romualdez to four mansions in Forbes Park, Makati, one across Malacañang, Manila, one in Tacloban, one in Cebu, two in America and one in Spain.
What did Bongbong Marcos really tell first cousin Martin about those many mansions? There are two conflicting versions:
One, BBM castigated Martin for avarice that tarnished the admin in the flood control scandal. That’s according to Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco in a One News interview on Nov. 14, 2025.
“Martin, kayo ni Zaldy [Co], ilang bahay ba ang gusto niyo sa Forbes Park? Gaano karaming eroplano, helicopter? Gaano karaming caviar kaya niyo kainin? Ilang Ferrari gusto niyo?” Tiangco quoted BBM telling Martin just days prior. Tiangco’s wife is also first cousin of BBM and Martin.
Two, BBM ordered Martin to buy the mansion on 30 Tamarind Street, Forbes Park supposedly as dropoff and storage of suitcases of cash plundered from public works. That’s according to ex-congressman Zaldy Co on Nov. 24, 2025.
“Sinabi po sa akin ni Speaker Martin na si PBBM ang nag-utos sa kaniya na bilhin ang bahay sa No. 30 Tamarind Street para gamitin bilang bagsakan at imbakan ng pera mula sa mga SOP, koleksyon at deliveries na para sa Pangulo,” Co said in his fourth video version of the P1.7-trillion flood works scam.
Investigators link Co to the scam as chairman of the House appropriations committee when Martin was speaker, July 2022-Sept. 2025. He released the videos from Europe, where he fled after US medical treatment.
Present and past investigations plus news reports link Martin as well to the 10 mansions:
• 42 McKinley Drive, Forbes Park.
Co said his aides Mark and Paul delivered payoffs on instructions of Martin’s assistant Jocelyn. The suitcases of cash came from DPWH-Bulacan district engineer Henry Alcantara. Those were first dropped off at Co’s house in Valle Verde, Pasig or Shangri-La Hotel penthouse in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.
• 14 Narra Street, Forbes Park.
Co said this became the alternate dropoff after Martin vacated 42 McKinley. A 104-page ombudsman complaint states that Martin’s Brightnews Corp. bought this property on Jan. 26, 2023 for P1.6 billion paid through two P800-million manager’s checks from Philippine Veterans Bank. Lawyers Edgar Dennis Padernal and Jose Raulito Paras, Martin’s Upsilon Sigma Phi fraternity mate in UP Diliman, supposedly front for Martin in Brightnews.
This mansion was previously rented by Rose Nono Lin, wife of Chinese fugitive Lin Weixiong alias Allan Lim. Lin Weixiong was the partner in Offshore Gaming and the P11.5-billion Pharmally scam of Michael Yang, who lived across the street.
• 30 Tamarind Street, Forbes Park.
Co claimed that this “bagsakan at imbakan” of cash in suitcases is only a stone’s throw away from BBM’s residence. Malacañang spokesperson Claire Castro denies this. But Wikipedia lists 27 Tamarind Street, immediately diagonal to Martin’s mansion, among current and former properties of the Marcos clan. Source: Republic of the Philippines v. Bienvenido Tantoco, et al. Civil Case 0008.
• Townhouse inside Manila Polo Club, McKinley Drive, Forbes Park.
Ombudsman investigators quote eight of 18 Co bagmen as detailing payoffs of cash in paper bags from Martin to certain officials.
• Aguado Mansion across the street from Malacañang Palace.
Co’s bagman ex-Marine Sgt. Orly Guteza claimed at the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee on Sept. 25, 2025 having delivered suitcases of cash to this manor. Martin supposedly entertains partymates and legislators in this historic site.
• Villa Kabila, Sotogrande, Cadiz, Spain.
This multi-bedroom luxury residence with swimming pool is within a three-hectare hacienda. Martin reportedly bought it in January 2024 for 6.9 million euros (P472 million). Sotogrande, with Mediterranean beach and hillside view of Gibraltar, was developed by the same couple behind Forbes Park. The ombudsman complaint cites a report that Martin’s second son plays polo there.
• 262 Real St., Purok 1, Brgy. 65, Tacloban City.
This is Martin’s official residence as congressman of Leyte’s 1st district.
• House and lot in Banilad, Cebu City.
Along with a farm in Mabalacat, Pampanga, this property is listed in Martin’s Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth.
• 2.5-hectare estate in Dover, Massachusetts.
Valued at $2.44 million (P130.5 million) that Martin held since 1988 before transfer to AMMY Incorporated for $1 in July 2025.
• Estate in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Purchased for $6.9 million (P425 million) in September 2022 through a company linked to his close associate and fraternity brother, Andrew Casiño.
In his State of the Nation last Monday, BBM said the ombudsman has filed case upon case against Martin. He claimed to have exposed the flood works plundering in the same report a year earlier. (In truth, senators and investigative journalists, including this column, have been documenting fake river and lake dredging as far back as 2007.)
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by jariusbondoc | Jul 29, 2026 | Gotcha
I give way to this article by Jamaica Mae Digo of Tzu Chi Medical Foundation PH. Excerpted:
Keyo Liwanag’s surname denotes brightness. “Liwanag” or “light” also signifies mental clarity or hope. Ironically these were the least Keyo had in the past year.
At 33, Keyo groped in the dark from cataract blindness. His misfortune resulted from dismissing his dimming vision to focus on his father who suffered a stroke seven years ago. Keyo quit his job as seafarer and came home to care for his father. With no steady income for his father’s treatment, Keyo sold property he acquired from years of labor. Nonetheless, Keyo’s father succumbed to his illness. Four months later Keyo’s eyesight totally dimmed, plunging him into darkness.
Still grieving the loss of his father, Keyo could only consult thrice an ophthalmologist in Oriental Mindoro before giving up. “Surgery was expensive. I told them we couldn’t afford it. I became depressed, feeling so helpless. My mother was getting older; I had no income,” Keyo recalled.
Overwhelmed by a bleak future, Keyo urged his life partner Princess Seraspe to leave him while she still could. “He said I might only suffer because of his condition,” Princess shared. “But I refused to leave because I had faith that he will be given a chance to see again so that we can start over.”
For months the couple prayed till an answer came knocking on their door: a friend of Keyo’s mother who underwent successful cataract surgery at Tzu Chi Eye Center in Sta. Mesa, Manila. Encouraged, they contacted another friend, Merly Foz, who opened her home in Manila to Keyo and Princess. Merly also accompanied and assisted Keyo throughout his treatment.
Keyo’s initial consultation with volunteer ophthalmologist Dr. John Solamo on March 2, 2026, yielded this prognosis: because he developed cataracts at such young age for unknown reason, regaining sight after surgery cannot be guaranteed. Still, Dr. John advised, the operation was Keyo’s only chance.
On March 18, Dr. John performed delicate surgery, successfully removing the cataract in Keyo’s right eye. Dr. John’s advice while cleaning up Keyo’s face post-surgery left a deep impression on the young man. “When your vision returns, remember who to thank,” Dr. John, a devout Catholic told him. “God made it happen.”
Princess and Merly, nervously awaiting the surgery’s result, jumped up to greet Keyo with hugs and kisses. “I saw him staggering, unable to walk by himself,” Princess recalled. “It was a huge problem for our family. But now, look at him. It’s a blessing that you [Tzu Chi] had come into our lives and helped him.”
Keyo recalled, “I thought I was a hopeless case. I had given up. I thought I would never see the world again. But now I’m so relieved. I can see well and that makes me so happy.”
Outside, the morning light made everything look brilliant and clear. A stark difference from the darkness Keyo had left behind. Another surgery is due on Keyo’s left eye. Upon recovery, he plans to resume seafaring. Then, to live to the fullest every vibrant day he was given another chance to see.
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Tzu Chi Eye Clinic accepts indigent eye patients. Simply set an appointment by texting your name, birthday, address and eye problem to 0908-811-4709. A specialist will see you at the appointed day and time. Checkups, medicines and operations are funded through PhilHealth and supplemented through donations.
Address: 1000 Cordillera cor. Lubiran Streets, Bacood, Sta. Mesa, Manila.
Clinic days and hours: Mondays to Fridays, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Offering services for cataracts, glaucoma, eye tumors, squint and diseases of the cornea and retina.
Jamaica Mae Digo is a staff writer and photographer for Tzu Chi Eye Center.
Tzu Chi Eye Center conducts bimonthly missions in Dagupan and Ormoc cities. Last Sunday in Ormoc, it provided free eye checkups for 183 indigents, screening 61 for cataract removal and 28 for pterygium operation. Most will be given corrective lenses.
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Tzu Chi Foundation is a Buddhist Humanitarian Charity organization. Mission: to relieve the suffering of those in need while creating a better world for all through compassion, love and hope.
Tzu Chi, the world’s largest Buddhist humanitarian organization, was founded in Taiwan by Buddhist nun Dharma Master Cheng Yen in 1966. It has over 10 million volunteers in more than 60 countries, with relief operations extended to over 120 countries. The United Nations Economic and Social Council (UN ECOSOC) awarded it a special consultative status.
Tzu Chi Foundation has been in the Philippines for 31 years, working in disaster-stricken areas and transforming lives through its various programs in disaster relief and rehabilitation, education, medicine, and environmental protection.
In Mandarin, tzu means compassion and chi relief.
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by jariusbondoc | Jul 24, 2026 | Gotcha
Senator-judge Robin Padilla provided comic relief Wednesday. Most welcome after NBI Director Melvin Matibag’s boring two-day testimony which disappointed Harry Roque, “Akala ko fireworks, kwitis lang pala.” Recorded for posterity:
Padilla: “Ang nasasakdal po kasi dito ay ibinoto ng 32 million na tao. Sana po, aming mga mahal na kaibigan sa prosecution, ay isipin nating mabuti bago po tayo magbigay ng mga witness na may perjury na kaso. O, nagkaroon po kami ng dahilan na gumawa ng amenda na itong perjury ay amendahan. Pwede po ba ‘yon?”
Congresswoman-Chief Prosecutor Gerville Luistro: “Your Honor, with all due respect, I would like to take exception to the question and manifestation of the Honorable Senator-Judge Robin Padilla. First of all, we were able to verify already that there are no cases pending against the prosecution witnesses [NBI special agent John Mark Calilung, regional director Jeremy Lotoc, Matibag].
“In addition, Your Honor, and only to respond to the concern of the Honorable Senator-Judge Padilla, ang conviction po ay hindi ground for disqualification unless it is final and unless it is punishable by more than one year and that the crime constitutes moral turpitude.”
Padilla: “Alam niyo po, napakaganda po ng inyong sagot. Sana hindi one-sided ang ating prosecution, ano? Kasi, alam niyo, kapag kayo, pag pabor sa inyo, alam niyo…”
Guffaws erupted from the gallery, provoking Padilla to glare and gnash: “Bawal po ang ginagawa nitong nasa harap natin na nagkukume-kumento. Hindi po sila allowed mag-ingay. Korte po ito.”
Truly, unlike the stomach, the brain does not alert you when it’s empty.
Only six million viewers follow livestreams of VP Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial. The rest of the 118 million Filipinos are busy coping with commodity price spikes.
Fuel rates again skyrocketed P11 more per liter Tuesday. As a result, chicken, pork and fish prices rose too. Veggies cost double. Carinderias have upped presyos, if not lessened takals.
Jeepney drivers are striking. Ride-hailing and taxi cabbies are demanding higher booking fees. Electricity and water bills have hit the ceiling.
Overall inflation is nearly seven percent, the Philippine Statistics Authority says. Food inflation alone is 5.4 percent.
Government has increased by P85 the daily wage in Metro Manila. That’s little relief for workers in the big city who can hardly make both ends meet.
Pay hikes are expected soon in other regions. Micro businesses have been exempted from granting it. Meaning, the 3.2 million laborers in micro will have to tighten belts some more. Big enterprises can well afford to pay – but will lay off perceived redundant and recent hires.
Small- and medium-sized enterprises will be hardest hit. Small have 10 to 99 employees, for an industry total of 2.5 million. Medium have 100 to 199, with 500,000 in all. Any more disruptions will force them to close shop.
Government is not expected to think of real solutions other than political ayuda. That means more taxes to be collected, only to be plundered by politicos.
Bongbong Marcos’ admin is merely coasting along. It promised P20-a-kilo rice during the 2022 election campaign. The staple has remained at P50 a kilo. Subsidies to bring it down at Kadiwa stores for indigents are band-aid solutions.
People are grumbling that BBM is not jailing any crony whom he chastised “Mahiya naman kayo!” in July 2025 for flood works plunder. He has even promoted or reassigned Cabinet members implicated in the P1.7-trillion scam.
BBM’s popularity, trust and performance ratings have been dropping. Those of his archenemy VP Sara keep rising. Forty-nine percent will elect her president in 2028, according to Pulse Asia’s latest survey.
Many believe that Sara’s impeachment is due not to accountability, but her breakaway from BBM’s UniTeam admin. For them, whatever bombast BBM will let loose in his State of the Nation Address on Monday will be nothing more than hot air.
Robin Padilla is thus appreciated as much-needed entertainment. No need for trial lawyer Howard Calleja to tell him what everyone else knows:
“One-sided po talaga ang prosecution at defense dahil trabaho nila ipagtanggol ang kani-kanilang panig sa abot-kaya nila. Ang nanumpa po na hindi dapat one-sided ay kayo, Robin Padilla, bilang senator-judge. Dapat po no blind political loyalty, dapat po neutral kayo, at huwag masyadong obvious na may bias at ‘sana hindi one-sided’.”
Action star Padilla is an ex-con. He was sentenced in 1994 to 21 years in prison for illegal possession of firearms. After serving two years and eight months he got presidential pardon. He prides himself with “UP-level education, University of Prison.”
So there.
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by jariusbondoc | Jul 22, 2026 | Gotcha
Bongbong Marcos claims to have brought to light the P1.7-trillion flood works scam. Yet he keeps being linked to it.
That’s because among the implicated are his Cabinet men and Congress supermajority allies. None of them have been jailed. BBM has even promoted or reappointed the Cabinet members.
“Mahiya naman kayo!” BBM chastised the plunderers in his State of the Nation of July 28, 2025. Yet his first move was a dud. He formed a secretive but powerless Investigative Commission for Infrastructure.
His first cousin ex-Speaker Martin Romualdez was labeled “mastermind.” No complaint has been filed. There’s only a report by a panel of ombudsman prosecutors.
That report stems largely from video accounts of ex-congressman Zaldy Co. Co claims that, as House appropriations committee chairman, he delivered suitcases of cash to Romualdez – and to BBM no less.
The videos are legally flawed. They are not sworn affidavits. Co prepared them from Europe, where he is hiding from the law.
The ombudsman has lent credence to eight of 18 ex-soldiers who acted as Co’s delivery men. Their testimonies can easily collapse. They emerged allegedly because funded by ex-congressman Mike Defensor.
Defensor is aligned with impeached VP Sara Duterte, who is accused of plotting to kill BBM. He was recently jailed while on trial for P75-million bribery. It’s unsure if he can still finance Romualdez’s “accusers.”
The ombudsman says Romualdez planned, oversaw and ultimately benefited from the funneling of public funds into ghost infrastructure projects. He supposedly got P56-billion kickback.
The ombudsman has only wangled from the Sandiganbayan Anti-Graft Court a precautionary hold departure order against the unindicted Romualdez’s flight from the Philippines.
Former finance secretary Ralph Recto and Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman were incriminated due to fund diversions. They rechanneled into flood and bridge works P60-billion PhilHealth subsidy and P107-billion deposit insurance from the 2024 allocations.
The Supreme Court ordered the return of the P60 billion to PhilHealth. BBM did so by allocating new taxes for the missing amount. Instead of chastising Recto, BBM promoted him to executive secretary. He appointed the resigned Pangandaman as chairwoman of the government’s Al-Amanah Islamic Investment Bank.
BBM disclosed in December 2025 the freezing of P16 billion in property, deposits and aircraft of congressmen brothers Eric and Edvic Yap. Yet no raps have been filed for supposed fake flood works.
Edvic has since resigned as congressman. He is presently rushing the two-year long construction of a mansion in posh Ayala Heights, Quezon City. BBM’s admin is only watching.
BBM’s sincerity is thus doubted.
Last July 5 he lamented: “I’m the one who exposed all of this… Bakit ang mga nakaraan ba na pangulo, may nakita ba kayong ginawang ganoon? Wala. Sa akin lang. Tapos sasabihin, ako raw ang may kagagawan. Kung talagang raket ko ‘yon, bakit ko sisirain ‘yong raket ko, ‘di ba?”
Perhaps on his State of the Nation on July 27 he can announce arrests.
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Isabela is the top corn-producing province and second in rice. It needs giant granaries. Most basic in those storages are rigid pallets to stack, protect, lift and transport enumerable sacks of grains.
Where to get those hard plastic platforms? Simple: from homes, streets and landfills.
By recycling plastic trash, Isabela is able to save the environment from non-biodegradables and save money instead of importing pallets.
Inaugural of the pallet factory was timely. Isabela harvested 1.1 million tons of corn and 1.5 million tons of palay in 2025. Gov. Rodito Albano and Vice Gov. Kiko Dy opened the facility right in the Provincial Capitol Complex early this year.
Primary raw materials are high-density Polyethylene or Plastic #2 and Polypropylene or Plastic #5, valued for durability and reusability.
Accepted recyclables are shampoo bottles, hard caps, yogurt bottles, six-pack rings and cases, broken plastic storage boxes, wash basins and containers of detergent, oil and food.
Polyethylene PET bottles or Plastic #1, such as water bottles, and Polyvinyl Chloride PVC are excluded to maintain product quality. Such materials have different melting properties and may contain contaminants that can affect the strength, consistency and durability of the final pallets.
Plastic wastes come from local government units and junkshops. The municipalities of San Mateo, Echague and Jones were among the first suppliers of collected plastics from their material recovery facilities and sanitary landfills.
To encourage segregation, unsorted plastics are purchased at P12- P15 per kilo, while sorted materials can fetch up to P30 per kilo.
The pallet factory is accelerating output. Isabela might soon need to source materials from neighboring provinces, Environment and Natural Resources Officer Geronimo Cabaccan Jr. said.
Private partners are also being tapped, he added. Pharmaceutical firms will donate acceptable plastic discards.
Isabela-made pallets can last more than 10 years if not exposed to sunlight for long periods, facility manager Jenieson Yu said. The provincial government will increase production to supply private granaries and warehouses.
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by jariusbondoc | Jul 17, 2026 | Gotcha
PNA Photo
For Senator-Judge Alan Cayetano, if a death threat alarms you, then you must be guilty.
That was in his interjection July 14 of NBI officer Jeremy Lotoc:
Cayetano: “Sabi mo, President Bongbong Marcos and Speaker Martin Romualdez felt threatened.”
Lotoc: “Base sa investigation namin, base sa video at base sa ibang testimonies.”
Cayetano: “So if they felt threatened, that means tingin nila totoo yung sinabi ni VP Sara Duterte na patayin sila. They won’t feel threatened if they don’t think she meant it na patayin silang tatlo, right?”
Lotoc: “In our investigation, trinato nila ‘yong utterances as seryoso.”
Cayetano: “Yes. But they won’t feel threatened unless tingin nila seryoso ’yong threat.”
Lotoc: “According to them seryoso ‘yong threat.”
Cayetano: “But the threat was,‘Kapag pinatay niyo ako, papatayin ko kayo.’ So kung hindi naman nila balak patayin, why would they feel threatened? Unless you’re saying now you think balak na nilang papatayin si VP.”
Lotoc: “From our point of view as law enforcement, ‘yon ang naging alarming issue.”
Cayetano: “I’m also alarmed with the language, with saying that. I’m alarmed with what’s happening in our country, in flood control. Pero ang party na threatened, feels threatened. Pero ang sinabi ni VP Sara, kapag pinatay ako, patayin silang tatlo. So kung wala naman silang tatlo balak na patayin siya, why would they feel threatened? Did that not come into your mind as an investigator?”
Lotoc: “What comes to your mind, your honor, is ‘yon nga ‘yong possibility na, God forbid, may mangyari sa VP na hindi naman alam nu’ng tatlo, then ma-trigger ngayon ‘yong instruction, then papatayin ‘yong tatlo na hindi naman nila alam. At the same time, ‘yong mga ibang grupo…”
Cayetano: “Then in that case, hindi ba logical because you’re the President of the Philippines, you order the PSG [Presidential Security Group] to make sure na walang mangyayari sa kanya rather than baliktad na tinanggalan siya ng security. Nu’ng tinanggalan, I’m just following your logic. I won’t argue.”
That came after Lotoc testified about VP Sara’s livestreamed death threats on Nov. 23, 2024. He said he also reviewed Sara’s Oct. 18 press conference, during which she gestured how she’d behead BBM and expressed desire to dig up Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s remains to throw into the sea.
Lotoc swore he tried to look into a so-called “Operation Romanov,” but that Sara and the vlogger who asked her about it snubbed their invitations to meetings.
How Cayetano came to conclude that the target of death threats must be guilty if they’re alarmed is unclear.
What’s clear are news reports of Sara, as Davao city mayor on July 1, 2011, punching a court sheriff’s face twice. She claimed then that the sheriff had ignored her request to postpone for two hours the demolition of squatter shanties till she arrived. She then warned the court that city hall would no longer allot it subsidies.
Lotoc said it was Sara’s brother Davao City Mayor Baste Duterte who mentioned “Romanov” during a public tirade against BBM on Jan. 28, 2024. It pointed to the First Family, not to Sara and kin, he said. He also read about the transfer to Metro Manila of 75 security personnel of Sara, leaving her with 335.
The NBI followed evidence, not personalities, Lotoc stressed. Its probe involving BBM relied on authenticated recordings, public statements and corroborating witnesses. The alleged threats against Sara did not yield validated information to merit further investigation.
Sara’s defense counsels pointed up technicalities, like typo errors and the respondents in three Supreme Court rulings on grave threats being commoners and not a VP like Sara. Lotoc stuck to investigative findings being different from DOJ’s recommended criminal charges and constitutional questions that only the impeachment court can decide.
Cayetano was Rody Duterte’s VP running mate in 2016. He was also his foreign secretary, May 2017 to October 2018.
He questioned Lotoc about the Romanov allusion:
“I’m not close to Mayor Baste or VP Sara. Ang kasama ko sa Congress si former Deputy Speaker Pulong. But in the last four years, I think I’ve seen him twice or thrice. But my reading nu’ng sinabi ni Mayor Baste is kapag natulog ka sa gabi,remember the Romanovs.
“So we have to look at our history. The Romanovs were evicted via a revolution.
“Mayor was doing a parallel sa 1986 revolution. Unlike the Romanovs, the Marcoses were given asylum in Hawaii. Over time BBM became president. The Romanovs, inubos.
“Now if mayor was making Romanovs Marcos, I don’t think we should draw a conclusion here that mayor was threatening the First Family because remember there’s a thin line between a warning and a threat.”
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