screenshot from PTV
“Thus the reason the farsighted ruler and his superior commander conquer the enemy at every move, and achieve successes far beyond the reach of the common crowd, is advance knowledge. Such knowledge cannot be had from ghosts and spirits, educed by comparison with past events, or verified by astrological calculations. It must come from people – people who know the enemy’s situation.” SUN-TZU
When former President Rodrigo Duterte was renditioned to that facility known as Prison Scheveningen in faraway The Netherlands, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his henchmen in all likelihood probably clicked their glasses to celebrate. If ever they did, it was premature.
Just three months away from the day BBM and his cohorts thought was the beginning of the end of fPRRD, the ground is starting to burn under their feet. The fabled Duterte pushback is in high gear. They pushed the old man and his entire family to the wall. That is the biggest mistake they made.
As soon as she touched down on Philippine soil after visiting fPRRD, Vice-President Inday Sara Duterte did not waste time. What initially seemed like indiscriminate stops in isolated towns soon turned into a vicious clapback primarily against politicians who savaged her, her father and her family. As the list got longer, the crowds got bigger and even more passionate.
Along the way, VP Inday dropped a few surprises. First, she endorsed the reelection bid of Sen. Imee Marcos. Next, she gave her support to Rep. Camille Villar. She was recruiting from the enemy, and she chose her targets well. It initially caused confusion even inside Team Duterte. How could she trust Imee again? And why Camille? The second will have to wait.
A Senate investigation on fPRRD’s kidnapping answered the first one. It came out with the official documentation of the entire operation. It may not have endeared Imee to Duterte loyalists, but it is valuable, even priceless to fPRRD’s case before the International Criminal Court. Anybody in VP Inday’s place would do the same: her endorsement for Imee in exchange for perhaps the most important Senate hearing under the Marcos 2 administration.
But VP Inday is not through yet. She declared in public what was only whispered in private about a drug-related death in the United States which incriminated First Lady Liza Marcos. So fPRRD’s kidnapping was one huge PR coup to divert attention from the brewing scandal. It now makes sense why they had to rush it. Anybody can now connect the dots without much effort.
Few people realize it but from where he is now, fPRRD is far more dangerous than he has ever been. Now, he has all the time, the privacy and the focus for the much-awaited counter-strike. That fortress-like atmosphere in the prison, pronounced Shay-vuh-ning-uhn by locals, has turned out to be just what the doctor ordered for him to prepare the masterplan.
If BBM and his think-tanks thought they had broken the old man, they only need to look at the bombs exploding as we speak. VP Inday has gone full throttle as the superior commander to the far-sighted ruler that Sun-Tzu envisioned. It is obvious that she is a woman on a mission. Where that mission will take her, unfolding events will reveal.
“It must come from people – people who know the enemy’s situation,” Imee fits the bill to the letter. The advance knowledge needed to win the war is at her disposal, no matter how little BBM – or Liza – thought about it. Imee knows where the bodies are buried, literally and figuratively. No one knows the “enemy’s situation” better than her.
There was something amiss in fPRRD’s insistence to fly home from Hong Kong in spite of all the distressing information warning him of his arrest. He could have stayed for a few more weeks or fly straight to Davao and it would have disrupted that scandalous arrest. Did he see all these coming?
Don’t expect any answers from the man who has kept his cards close to his chest all his life. Watching the events unraveling and the Marcos administration disintegrating right before our eyes, one cannot exactly rule out the possibility that he knew the war can be won – in a more dramatic fashion simply by playing along with the enemy.
Whoever wrote the script to kidnap fPRRD and feed him to the ICC did BBM, Liza and the whole cabal in. What was supposed to be his burial place figuratively instead has turned into a friendly fortress ideal for the urgent task at hand. Never in their wildest dreams did they imagine fPRRD launching his grandest come back from – of all places – The Hague.
