A Judas Kiss in a Barong: Reconciliation or Submission?
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Sharing my newly published article in The Manila Times.
Have a lovely weekend, everyone!
… IN the grand stagecraft of Philippine politics, where loyalty is fleeting and betrayal is currency, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s recent call for "reconciliation" with Vice President Sara Duterte and her family, a well-rehearsed act of political theater with a performance worthy of Shakespearean applause, a kiss of conciliation masking the dagger of political survival, which in many ways, is also akin, in essence, to a modern-day reenactment of "Judas Iscariot's kiss."
Marcos steps into the spotlight draped in the robes of a peacemaker, but beneath the velvet smile flickers the cold steel of ambition. He extends one hand in apparent reconciliation, while the other, hidden just out of view, tightens its grip on the levers of power, orchestrating the choreography of control. His recent call for reconciliation with Sara Duterte and her embattled family, despite a full-blown campaign by his political allies to impeach her and extradite her father to face trial in The Hague, reeks not of statesmanship or a gesture of reconciliation but a calculated act of survival cloaked in the language of diplomacy….
To read more, click the link below;
TMT: https://www.manilatimes.net/2025/05/31/opinion/columns/a-judas-kiss-in-a-barong-reconciliation-or-submission/212412
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Submission? NO! Iyan ay isang trick ng isang nakapolvoron. Ayaw ngang magpadrug test, submission pa kaya? This man isn't the President anymore, he is the mouthpiece or spokesperson of his wife, Martin Romualdez and by the Oligarchs. Sorry to say this Madam Anna. Na-blackmailed itong taong ito sa kanyang past at bisyo. Our country and the Presidency is all for the take sa lahat ng mga CORRUPT, AMBISYOSO, at MAGNANAKAW including in the Military Ranks and the PNP. We are more devastated than Ukraine. OMG!!
Once bitten is enough and can be excused. The second time is stupidly. The Maharlika has been destroyed due to betrayals within the ranks and its people from ancient time to the present time. I do not call my country Philippines, but Maharlika, since I was 16 years old. When I heard the Late President Marcos' speech about who we really are and our history. I stick to it and researched more about world history.
I love what the Senior did to our country. He gave me something to hold onto, even though my whole family left my country for Australia many years ago. I was 18 and learned about my Maharlika more here in Australia than when I was there. The destructions of our culture, heritage, people, history, future, etc. due to world colonialism, were devastating and unforgivable. Human beings are naturally selfish and will kill to preserve itself. So it is hard to give loyalty to any other entity unless you make it your own. A country that you made your own is very difficult to give up. You will eventually die fighting for it and it is an honour to do so. But then again, the people of that country that you love is another. How can one own another which have its own mind and decision. Loyalty to yourself is way different than loyalty to others. We are selfish in nature and this is the weakness that every human beings will encounter while living here on earth. Are you ready to die for a country? Are you ready to die for another person? The answer to this is simply "NO". But once you attach the word "MY" into it, then it will become your own...my brother, my people, my country, my sister, my neighbour, my friend, etc. Only then that Loyalty follows.
Self-respect is another. If a family member of yours, committed a crime, will you report it? This is where selfishness will be overthrown or skewed a bit. The respect to yourself disappears. To preserve others prevails. Still selfish, but looking at another point of view. The same goes with honour, image, etc. They will be skewed and depends who is on the other line.
So my point is, who can judge others while our self will also be tried on the same condition. We will also fail as any other human beings. The Marcos Junior have crossed this line every second in his life. He may have succeeded to some and failed to the most, to the public eyes. A president must take the side of its country that it is representing and not its enemies. Once he identifies his enemies, whether according to him or according to someone he feared or love, he had to decide accordingly. He made the worst decision by betraying those who were loyal to him. He will pay dearly and his generations that follows. This will be the end of the Marcoses. I hope that the people do not drag Imee Marcos with him. She is innocent and it shows in her actions in the past and present. The sin of the brother is not the sin of the sister.
By taking side of USA, UK and Australia is a very wrong decision. I am sure it was selfish nature. Probably given a deal that he think that he will benefit from it greatly. If he was thinking of his country, then he should have visited both sides, before making any decisions. He just took his country's oppressors' hands and blindly let them in. Not knowing it will be the destruction of his country. China and Russia have a history of helping the underdogs than the oppressors. Bong Marcos have no idea about history and I believe that he has no knowledge about world politics and even his own country's politics. All he knows is money, oligarchy, corruption and still connected to drugs. He could be blackmailed by others. He must have a lot of dirts on his hands that it is so dirty that he can't wash it off. Duterte admitted straight away about his affairs, attitudes, his good and bad sides to the people. Bong Marcos must have unforgivable sins that the public won't be able to forgive. Then why ran as the country's president if you are not worthy of it?
Most Maharlikans wants to slap him in the face once they will have a chance. I can admit that I do feel that. At the same time pity him that a slap will not make him angry, but cry.
One question that I want him to ask himself..."What will I be remembered in history?"