Sara Duterte is gunning (wink, wink) for the presidency in 2028.
Did her announcement really come as a surprise, though? We all knew she wanted the top post way back, even before the 2022 elections, where she decided to slide down to vice president -- a compromise that gave rise to the short-lived and now meme-worthy UniTEAM (and countless tasteless tattoos that have since -- I assume -- been lasered off by now, thank God).
In giving way to Bongbong Marcos, Sara counted on something that she and the Dutertes could always count on from the registered voters of Davao City since time immemorial: undying loyalty. That undying loyalty has resulted in multiple terms as mayor and vice mayor in Davao City for both Sara and her father, Rodrigo Duterte, as well as a congressional seat for Paolo Duterte in Davao City's 1st District, a congressional seat for Omar Vincent Duterte in the 2nd District, and a council seat for Rodrigo "Rigo" Duterte II. And guess who's the current mayor now? Yup. The supposed vice mayor, Baste Duterte, who had to take over for his father because a cardboard cutout really won't cut it as the city's head honcho, can it? (Although that actually gives you pause, doesn't it? I mean, how many degrees better as mayor, really, is Baste than a cardboard cutout anyway?)
The Marcos administration, it turned out, had other plans other than undying loyalty to Sara and the Dutertes. Sara was caught off guard when Martin Romualdez, Bongbong's cousin, stripped her of her confidential funds -- barely a year after the tandem "won" the elections by a landslide. And the unraveling was swift, which included Sara threatening to hire a hitman to go after (and threatening to, of all things, behead) her boss, culminating in that same embarrassed, emasculated boss allowing (or ordering?) Nicolas Torre to whisk off the elder Duterte in a waiting private plane and fly him to the Hague.
So speaking of loyalty: as expected, after the announcement, the rabid DDS horde has been making noise on the socials and beating the war drums. You dare pick on our Tatay and his family, expecting no retaliation? Just you wait. Hooboy, just you wait. Just you wait for 2028. (Yo Dutertards, that's pretty catchy, huh? "Just you wait for 2028." You're welcome.)
From what I've gathered by observing the non-Davao City DDS in their natural habitat (I know a lot of Cebuano Dutertards, so I know whereof I speak, or write), this loyalty is borne out of a desire to have someone in charge who's uncompromising -- follow me, follow my orders, or you're fucked.
You know the type: the Rodrigo Duterte who murdered thousands in his drug war, the Sara Duterte who beat up a court sheriff on live camera for doing his job, the Paolo Duterte caught on CCTV footage pulling out a knife at a bar and threatening a businessman, and the thirtysomething Baste Duterte who challenged the fiftysomething Torre to a fistfight only to chicken out at the last minute.
This type of loyalty is worrisome. These people know that Digong killed thousands. They know that Sara plundered her confidential funds (remember her spending P125 million in a span of 11 days, and explaining that part of the expenses was a "tree-planting activity"? The fuck were you planting anyway, Taylor Swift's pubic hair?). They don't care that there are rumors of Paolo being a member of the Hong Kong Triad. And, more importantly, they don't give a flying fuck that Ellen Adarna dumped Baste.
These type of people can't be reasoned with. They have a singular goal: to bring the Dutertes back in power by voting for Sara in 2028 -- come hell or (ghost-project flood-control) high water.
Remember that famous quote by Kyle Reese in Terminator 1, when -- tired, hungry, and on the run -- he was trying to explain to a terrified Sarah Connor that the cyborg hunting them is not human and can't be negotiated with?
"Listen and understand! That Terminator is out there! It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop . . . ever, until you are dead!"
Listen and understand: these die-hard Dutertards are out there, and they can't be reasoned with. They don't feel empathy or shame. They are devoid of humanity. And they absolutely will not stop, ever, until another Duterte burns the country to the ground. As long as it's "their" Duterte.
When James Cameron wrote the character of the Terminator, he focused on its unwavering, unrelenting loyalty to Skynet, a hostile AI program that became self-aware and vowed to wipe out the human race. While trying to escape the machine and bring Connor to safety, Reese managed to burn off the T-800's living tissue and skin, and blow off its midsection with a pipe bomb -- at the cost of his own life. Still, the Terminator pursued Connor, acting on Skynet's command. That's the thing with Terminators, regardless of the model, from the T-800 to the T-X -- they are loyal to a fault, and the only way to stop them is to turn them off. Which Connor -- played by the iconic Linda Hamilton -- did by crushing its CPU, flattening the cyborg in a hydraulic press.
"That's loyalty for you," I could picture Cameron saying out loud, alone, while writing his screenplay.
Oh, James. Obviously you haven't met a Dutertard.
Sara is counting on something that she and the Dutertes could always count on from the registered voters of Davao City since time immemorial, and now from the registered Dutertard voters not only in the Philippines but also around the world: undying, unwavering, unrelenting loyalty.
