When Bong Bong Met Sara
Theirs was touted as the unbeatable dream team: Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. (Bong Bong) for president, Sara Duterte-Carpio for vice president. Some described their bid as orgasmic. Enthusiasts compared their alliance to When Harry Met Sally and Meg Ryan’s infamous moaning-whining-slithering-screaming-shouting “Oh My God” at a New York delicatessen. Sally (Meg Ryan) was faking an orgasm as we all know.
The UniTeam, Bong Bong and Sara’s campaign moniker celebrated the melding of two formidable political dynasties --- the Marcoses and the Dutertes. The alliance was the brainchild of former Gloria-Macapagal Arroyo and Sara’s mentor --- former chief executive turned political operator to Sara Duterte. And why not? Just like fake orgasms, you can concoct all tone and tenor of voice to convince each other that you’ve climaxed. In politics, it can’t be all that much different.
That was in November 2021. Analysts and pundits described the May 2022 elections as the Philippines’ most consequential election in three decades of liberal democracy or some serious attempt at it, despite the fumbling and bungling.
In a twist of irony, Bong Bong and Sara’s political marriage was sealed at a wedding ceremony. The daughter of celebrity politicians, actor-Senator Bong Revilla and his wife, Congresswoman Lani Mercado-Revilla, Gianna Revilla walked down the garden path as the blushing bride. Yet, the real center of attention, the ceremony’s electrifying moment, was a picture of Bong Bong Marcos and Sara Duterte walking arm in arm. “The bride and groom were completely eclipsed by the cinematic casting of Sara Duterte-Carpio and Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. as the lead pair of 15 sets of principal sponsors,” (godparents),” wrote Filipino sociologist Randy David. The political romance of the offspring of two political stalwarts -– the son of former President Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. and the daughter of then President Rodrigo Duterte --- was the stuff of high-end drama, a grand political spectacle.
In Filipino social culture, marriage sponsors are standby parents, tasked with ensuring the survival and flourishing of the union. In Filipino political culture, sponsors are testimonials to the power and status of the families. They become value-added ritual kin as ninong/ninang (godfather/mother) at someone’s baptism, wedding, or confirmation. In Filipino politics, these ties cement relationships and bind them in a system of mutual obligations and personal loyalty. Revilla’s wedding was not just a ceremony in a rustic environment. It was a cultural coup de grace, the cradle of a seemingly powerful alliance between two influential dynasties that would flex its muscles in electoral politics.
The wedding was also the venue for Sara Duterte’s swearing-in as a member of the ruling Lakas-CMD political party. In one of the backrooms in Senator Revilla’s farm, no doubt lavishly done up for the occasion, Sara raised her hand and pledged her allegiance to the party that was home to former presidents Arroyo and Fidel Ramos. “A carefully scripted teleserye of Sara Duterte-Carpio’s debut into the national political stage,” said Randy David, the sociologist.
And win they did, by a convincing margin. Bong Bong Marcos garnered 32.6 million votes against his opponent, Vice President Leni Robredo with 15 million votes. Sara Duterte trounced her opponent with 32.2 million votes over Senator Frances Pangilinan’s measly 9 million votes. Together, they won close to 60 percent of all votes, “the first-ever tandem to win a clear majority in the Philippines’ single-round, first-past-the-post-electoral system,” wrote political analyst Richard Heyderian. Perhaps the euphoria was justified.
But not for long. Like every enviable marriage turned sour and vile, political alliances that smack of pure self-interest are doomed. One year into his presidency, the political fairy tale began to unravel. The Bong Bong-Sara alliance morphed into a sordid tale of political promiscuity and political slapping around.
Bong Bong smacked Sara by refusing to appoint her as defense minister. Instead, he gave her the education portfolio. Ouch! That must have hurt. The first blood was drawn. The marriage headed south from there.
Smacked in return, Bong Bong was caught by surprise when Sara’s father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, visited Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in July 2023 without so much as a “by your leave” to his successor The foreign ministry said it had not been informed that Duterte would visit Beijing. Nor did it claim to know who had invited Duterte and in what capacity he represented the Philippines.
Pouring oil on the fire, Arroyo, the Bong Bong-Sara matchmaker, plotted unsuccessfully to oust Parliament Speaker Martin Romualdez, Bong Bong’s first cousin, prompting many of Duterte’s allies in the Lower House to jump ship. Even more slapping and more smacking. A subsequent government audit and a Senate investigation proved that Sara spent the 125 million pesos (US$ 2.2 million) in confidential funds in 19 days, not eleven as she vehemently denied.
More seriously, Bong Bong shifted his policy gaze away from China – Dutertes’ foreign policy legacy. He firmly embraced the United States, expanding American access to Filipino military and naval bases and canceling several Chinese-funded projects. Perhaps most importantly, Bong Bong halted a US$896 million freight railway project that would have connected the Subic Bay and Clark Freeport Zones which are “sites of the nerve centers of U.S. military power in the Asia Pacific,” said journalist Sebastian Strangio.
The lengthening list of marital bickerings and wranglings ended the honeymoon, proclaimed Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III during a press briefing in the new year.
Bong Bong and Sara’s UNITeam has been debunked and demolished, added political commentator Richard Heyderian. As short marriages go, Bongo Bong and Sara’s union could rival that of Hollywood stars Britney Spears (55 hours), Pam Anderson (60 days) and Kim Kardashian (72 days).
Against all these airing-of-dirty-political-laundry is the larger backdrop of Philippine politics, best characterized by the political scientist Alfred McCoy as NOT the sum of its institutional parts, but rather, as a dizzying configuration of networks woven together through non-permanent alliances of blood and non-blood relations. He aptly described it as “an anarchy of families.”
The labyrinthian networks were born and bred at seemingly innocuous events like weddings and funerals, birthdays, and baptisms. Once consolidated, these marriages of convenience were embedded in the state. In the absence of durable institutions, ritual kinship ties proliferate in Philippine politics. Once exposed, the alliances are seen for what they are: intra-elite rivalry in a bid to dominate the spoils of office. The World Bank calls this “state capture.”
For now, Bong Bong and Sara have broken up. Mid-term elections in 2025 will determine whether ‘When Bong Bong Dumped Sara,’ is an appropriate sequel for this column. A final dissolution and annulment? Or a kiss-and-make-up scenario? In politics everywhere, there is always the anti-climax.