Vice President Sara Duterte has just taken the familial precept of extending preemptive absolution to favored aides, advisers, and supporters to the extreme, breaking the limit of acceptable conduct and behavior expected of a ranking public official. 

She admitted, in a profanity-filled midnight online rant, to ordering the assassination of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and Speaker Martin Romualdez. The hit on the Marcoses and the Speaker is conditional. It requires that she be assassinated first, a point that she was quick to point out the morning after her online screed. 

That is not relevant. She has admitted, emphasizing twice that it was not a joke, that she hired a contract killer against the President. End of story there. No amount of legal and verbal convolutions will erase those infamous words. We need reminding (or warning): the internet is forever.

Recall that just about a month ago, the Vice President talked candidly about beheading the President, and digging up the body of the President’s father, former president Ferdinand Marcos Sr., before tossing it into the West Philippine Sea.   

Triggered by Zuleika

Everyone thought that declaration would be hard to top. Well, we were wrong.

What triggered the outburst? The House ordered the detention of her chief of staff Zuleika Lopez for alleged contempt of the chamber. The Vice President criticized the move as political persecution. She then staged a semi-siege on the Batasang Pambansa, a political sugod-bahay. She vowed to accompany Lopez at her detention room until the House resumes its hearing. An order from the House to immediately transfer Lopez to the Women’s Correctional Facility raised tensions. Based on Vice President Duterte’s accounts, Lopez suffered a severe panic attack. Her breakdown triggered the Vice President’s acrid remarks.

Such an act of bravado has been touted as a display of compassion for a politically-persecuted aide. But it’s also reckless and dangerous.

If this were a spontaneous act as her supporters had claimed, it has triggered a chain of events with irreversible consequences not only for the Vice President and for her political future, but the nation as well. 

Falling on their swords

Why is the Vice President madly protective of her chief of staff? 

In the hierarchy of politics and government, the chief of staff is among the most trusted, usually part of the inner circle. The principal needs to be secure in the thought that the top aide will carry out instructions to the fullest, and will not engage in acts that will jeopardize position, perks, and career. 

Trust makes them privy to — and most of the time complicit in — secret deals or arrangements. If needed, the chief of staff is expected to fall on his or her sword to protect the principal. 

But the carte blanche is also an enticement to engage in side hustles without the principal’s knowledge or consent. In many cases, a politician’s downfall can be traced to the human failings of trusted aides. This explains why most politicians would rather have relatives and loved ones as their chiefs of staff; blood ties and deep personal bonds provide an added layer of protection.  

A chief of staff is expected to be forthright and stoic. The top aide must, if needed, stand alone, not to cling tightly to the principal in times of stress. But that is what Lopez has done.

Leaving St. Luke’s Medical Center for the Veteran’s Memorial Medical Center where the House has ordered her confinement, she clung tightly to the Vice President. 

Media reported that Lopez uttered the words, “Huwag mo akong iiwan.” Until now, the Vice President has not left her side.

Online chatter, while juicy, is not helpful and tends to distract our attention from the real and more substantive issues being probed by the House: confidential funds were withdrawn in a single day by Office of the Vice President (OVP) staff from a government depository bank, disbursed in record time, and liquidated without any concern for propriety. 

With all that has so far been revealed at the hearings, one can only conclude that it was a money heist on taxpayers’ money. According to the testimony of a career OVP official, access to, and decisions on, the disposition of confidential funds were limited to only a few, including Lopez and the Vice President.

Without a doubt, Lopez enjoys a level of trust that is boundless. It is now being tested not only by the vagaries of politics but the higher principles of transparency and accountability. 

The Vice President, by going out of her way to protect Lopez, has reciprocated her loyalty. For some, her presence not only provides comfort and reassurance but serves as a constant reminder against caving in to pressure. Their bond appears strong enough to defy the administration and the heavens. It’s a bond that chiefs of staff could lie for. – Rappler.com

Joey Salgado is a former journalist, and a government and political communications practitioner. He served as spokesperson for former vice president Jejomar Binay. 

The views expressed by the writer are his/her own and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Rappler.