VP Duterte presser shows UniTeam 'unity' was just transactional politics — analyst

Halalan 2022 presidential hopeful Ferdinand Marcos Jr and running mate Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio greet supporters en route to Pagudpud from Laoag during a campaign caravan in Marcos’ bailiwick Ilocos Norte on February 16, 2022. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News/File 

MANILA (UPDATED) — Vice President Sara Duterte’s criticism of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., including his supposed lack of a plan to address the country’s problems, show that the UniTeam alliance was just transactional politics, an analyst said Saturday.

In a free-flowing news conference on Friday, Duterte also said the Marcoses had “used” her and her popularity to secure election victory for the UniTeam Alliance of the Philippines’ biggest political parties and wealthiest families in the 2022 elections.

“Sa likod nitong mga ganitong presscon nito is nagsinungaling sila sa mga supporters nila,” lawyer and political analyst Michael Henry Yusingco, a senior research fellow with the Ateneo School of Government, said on Teleradyo Serbisyo.

(In the background of press conferences like these is that they lied to their supporters)

Marcos and Duterte ran and won on a platform of unity, supposedly a direct contrast to the relationship between then President Rodrigo Duterte and then Vice President Leni Robredo who had been at odds on issues like the bloody war on drugs.

“Unity. ‘Yun ang sagot nila. ‘Yun naman pala, hindi naman pala totoo ‘yun. Ang batayan pala ng UniTeam na sinasabi nila is transactional politics,” Yusingco said.

(Their frequent answer was unity. But it turns out that that was not true. The basis for the UniTeam was just transactional politics)

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The UniTeam Alliance has crumbled amid differences between the Marcos and Duterte factions in government over confidential funds for the Office of the Vice President and of the Department of Education that Duterte used to lead, an attempt to push for charter change, and over the handling of the West Philippine Sea issue with China.

‘NO PLATFORM’

Duterte said Friday that Marcos Jr. has no plans to address issues like hunger and food insecurity, adding that he does not know how to be a president.

“I don't ever remember may plataporma siya. I don't ever remember him discussing kung anong gagawin sa problema ngayon,” Duterte said.

(I don’t ever remember him presenting his platform. I don’t ever remember him discussing how we will solve the problems we have today)

She said Marcos Jr. had only promised that Filipinos would rise again together, a reference to the supposed Golden Era of the Marcos Sr. dictatorship.

She also said that she had not had any plans of running for national office — she had initially filed her candidacy for Davao City mayor — but that Sen. Imee Marcos, the President’s sister, had urged her to run for vice president to secure a victory against presidential candidate Robredo in the vote-rich Visayas.

“Of course, ginamit nila ako para manalo sila. Obvious naman iyon,” she also said.

(Of course they used me to win. That is obvious)

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She added that she had agreed to run on the condition that she would be named defense secretary and that Marcos Jr. would support her air travel to and from Davao City to be with her children, concessions that she said he had agreed to.

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Yusingo said, however, that Duterte should not be seen as a victim in the eventual crumbling of the UniTeam. which has since been replaced by the administration coalition Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas.

“She made her political calculations, the desired outcome ay hindi dumating, hindi niya nagustuhan (the desired outcome did not happen, she did not like how things turned out),” Yusingco said, adding both candidates benefited from the arrangement.

In response to Duterte's comments, House leaders called her press conference a “desperate" attempt to dodge questions on "public fund misuse during her leadership of the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education."

“Public funds are at stake here. Stop diverting the issue and address the controversy directly... Huwag puro iwas, the people deserve clear answers. Pati military ginamit mo, yet they were denied what was due to them. This needs to be explained," said Senior Deputy Speaker Aurelio Gonzales Jr. 

Majority Leader Mannix Dalipe said the Vice President was “clearly desperate to deflect attention.”

"Instead of addressing these serious allegations, she’s attacking others. The education system declined under her leadership, and public funds were mishandled. She must take responsibility,” Dalipe pointed out.

'NOTHING NEW' IN POLITICS

As the rivalry between the formerly allied factions intensifies,their “competition revolves around reputational damage control rather than meaningful change or accountability,” sociologist Athena Charanne Presto said on social media.

“This public fallout is only bound to escalate. It exposes the fragility of political alliances when there's no real governance vision,” she said.

In a post on social media platform X, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan president Renato Reyes Jr. said that the UniTeam's unity had been "all about political expediency", as he called the coalition an alliance of convenience.

"Nothing new under the rotten political system prevailing in the country today. Meanwhile, we are being told by the current regime to celebrate 'political reconciliation' amid all the unresolved issues the country continues to face," he said, referring to a polite handshake between Marcos Jr. and Robredo — his political opponent in the 2016 and 2022 elections — at an event in Sorsogon.

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Yusingco said tension between the factions in government would likely shoot up towards the 2025 and 2028 elections, which might see “an epic battle between two powerful dynasties.”

He added: “This is going to be even more dramatic, I would say. Pero ang punto dito is nag-aaway sila pero sino ang kawawa? Tayo ang kawawa (But the point here is, who will suffer while they fight? We will be the ones suffering).” — Jonathan de Santos, ABS-CBN News