The contradiction between former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and current President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has been thoroughly made public. Duterte, who also expressed his support for the Marcos Jr. government some time ago, no longer swallowed his anger, but listed Marcos Jr.'s "crimes" one by one in public, and warned him to be careful of ending up like his father Marcos Sr., and in the end the "presidency" will not be guaranteed.
[Duterte lashed out at Marcos Jr. at rally]
Multiple media outlets confirmed that Duterte and Marcos Jr. held separate large-scale rallies on Sunday, with Duterte choosing the location of Davao City, the family's home base. At the rally, Duterte can be said to be full of firepower, and the whole process of high-intensity output to Marcos Jr. One is to accuse Marcos Jr. of trying to amend the constitution, and the other is to accuse Marcos Jr. of being involved in drugs. Not only that, but Duterte also claimed that Marcos Jr.'s wife, Philippine First Lady Lisa Araneta-Marcos, "craves power."
Let's look at Duterte's accusations against Marcos Jr. one by one. The first is Marcos Jr.'s attempt to amend the Constitution, which can be said to have caused a stir in the Philippines recently. Put simply, Marcos Jr. and his relative, House Speaker Romualdez, intend to revise the constitution on economic and political terms. The current Philippine constitution stipulates that all foreign powers in the Philippines cannot exceed 40%, and Marcos Jr. intends to remove this restriction. Marcos Jr.'s political moves are more striking than economic.
[Marcos Jr. and Romualdez]
According to the previous rules, if the Philippines wants to amend the constitution, then the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines need to vote separately, and then the referendum will be held for the people after they are passed. And Marcos Jr.'s idea now is that the Senate and the House of Representatives will no longer vote separately, but together. If this is the case, it is completely different. Because there are 316 members of the House of Representatives and only 24 senators, the two sides are not in the same order of magnitude at all. And now that the House of Representatives is basically controlled by Romualdez, the outcome of this voting method is almost foregone if this method of voting is adopted.
Some analysts believe that the ultimate goal of Marcos Jr. and Romualdez is to directly change the Philippine political system and keep power in the Marcos family as much as possible. At present, the Philippines is a presidential republic, and like the United States, one feature is that there is no prime minister. And once it is converted to a parliamentary republic, there can be an additional position of prime minister, as in Germany and India. So how did this prime minister come out? Naturally, it depends on the face of the House of Representatives, and the conclusion is obvious to who is in the hands of the Philippine House of Representatives.
【Speaker of the Philippine House of Representatives Romualdez】
The intention of Marcos Jr. and Romualdez is that even if Marcos Jr. steps down, the supreme power in the Philippines will remain firmly in the hands of the Marcos family. Moreover, the matter of amending the constitution itself is very strange, and it is difficult not to suspect that there is organization and premeditation behind the fact that several Filipino groups jumped out almost overnight and wrote a letter demanding that the constitution be amended.
In this regard, Duterte directly called on the Philippine army and police to protect the constitution at an appropriate time, avoid possible threats, ensure the stability of the constitution and the security of the country, and warned of possible bloodshed.
On top of that, Duterte also mentioned Marcos Jr.'s father, Marcos Sr., who served as president of the Philippines. Duterte warned that Marcos Jr. could end up in the same fate as Marcos Sr., and he didn't want to see that happen.
[Former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.]
What makes Duterte's claim remarkable is that Marcos Sr. is an extremely controversial person. There is a view that Marcos Sr. was quite effective in the early years of his administration, but in the middle and late stages of his administration, he basically went to the end to the end, which allowed the Philippines to fall to the point where it is today. And the elder Marcos did not step down by himself, but fled to the United States in a hurry under the insults of the people and the defection of the army, and finally died in a foreign land. Duterte's talk about Marcos Sr.'s fate is indeed clear enough.
The second was Duterte's accusation of Marcos Jr.'s involvement in drugs, and he said at the rally that there is one thing that the people and the military should know, and that is that Marcos Jr. is "addicted to drugs." You must know that one of the major events during the Duterte administration was the "war on drugs" that "killed people without mercy", and he now accuses Marcos Jr. of taking drugs, which really does not mean the right thing.
However, Marcos Jr. himself flatly denied this accusation, and in turn hinted that Duterte was involved in drugs. Marcos Jr. claims that Duterte had previously used fentanyl for pain, and that the drug is highly addictive and must have affected Duterte. Romualdez, a relative of Marcos Jr., slammed Duterte's accusations as "insane." The Philippine Drug Enforcement Administration claimed after the incident that Marcos Jr. never appeared on their list.
[Marcos's mother, Imelda (left), Marcos's wife, Lisa Araneta-Marcos (right)]
Next up are Duterte's accusations against Mrs. Marcos Jr. In fact, some of Mrs. Marcos Jr.'s actions did cause quite a bit of controversy in the Philippines not long ago. In order to help his wife "chase stars", Marcos Jr. went to a concert with him in a presidential helicopter, and the reason given was that traffic jams could pose a safety threat. This behavior has been criticized by many Filipinos, who believe that Marcos Jr. and his wife are abusing their power.
And Duterte actually has something to say, because Marcos Jr.'s mother, the former first lady of the Philippines, Imelda, is also a very controversial person. There is a view that the chaos at the end of Marcos Sr.'s administration may have a lot to do with Imelda. Now Duterte's accusation that Marcos Jr.'s wife is "hungry for power" cannot but be reminiscent of something that used to happen.
There is no doubt that Duterte and Marcos Jr. have completely torn their faces. You must know that just the year before last, the two of them were political allies, but now this alliance has completely broken down. In addition, Duterte's son, Davao City Mayor Duterte Jr., has been more intense in his rhetoric against Marcos Jr. than his father. Marcos Jr., he claimed, put politics first and was only thinking about how to maintain his position, rather than focusing on formal work. If the president does not have love and ambition for the country, then he should resign immediately.