Sara Duterte says Baste's call for Marcos to resign is 'brotherly love'
For Vice President Sara Duterte, her brother Davao City Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte’s criticisms against Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.—including calls for him to resign—was a form of “brotherly love.”
In a statement on Jan. 29, Sara said she hasn’t spoken to Baste yet about what he said.
“I can only surmise that Mayor Sebastian Duterte is coming from a place of brotherly love,” Sara said, “coupled by the common sentiment that I do not deserve the despicable treatment that I am receiving from some sectors within the circle of the President.”
Sara said she believes in the Filipino voters who elected her and have trust in her.
“Kasama ng tiwalang ito,” she said, “ang tiwalang kakayanin ko ang anumang atake, black propaganda, paninirang-puri, at iba pang mga hamon na ibabato sa aking pagkatao.”
She vowed to “stay true” to her work at the Department of Education as secretary, “unless the President says otherwise.”
During a “prayer” rally against charter change in Davao City on Jan. 28—which coincided with Marcos’ “Bagong Pilipinas” rally in Manila—Baste said the president is lazy and lacks compassion. Baste also accused Marcos of making politics his “first priority instead of opening up new opportunities especially for the lower classes to improve the lives of Filipinos.”
“Mr. President, if you do not have love and aspirations for the country, resign,” he said.
Baste also noted that his father, Rodrigo Duterte, allowed Marcos’ father and namesake Ferdinand E. Marcos to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in 2016.
But Baste lamented how a certain “they” wanted to imprison his father. He was alluding to reports that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has entered the country to investigate the killings during the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.
Earlier this month, Marcos told the ICC that they may visit the country, though said he will not “lift a finger” to help in its investigation, which he described as “a threat to our sovereignty.”
The Marcoses and Dutertes joined forces under the UniTeam banner during the 2022 elections.
But their alliance has had cracks afterward, with Marcos giving Sara the problem-plagued DepEd portfolio instead of her preferred Department of National Defense.
Since then, it has gathered pace after House Speaker Martin Romualdez—Marcos' cousin who's also widely expected to seek the presidency in 2028—removed deputy speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, a former president and ally of the Dutertes.
Romualdez also spearheaded efforts to strip the Office of the Vice President and DepEd of millions of confidential funds.
The House of Representatives, whose majority supports Marcos, has pushed for the pro-Duterte network SMNI to be stripped of its license after one of its hosts accused Romualdez of spending P1.8 billion for his travels for 2023.