Scandal, panic, bring him home

To say that the year just past wasn’t so bad is understatement, merely hiding under the covers, as 2025 began turbulently enough with the arrest of former president Rodrigo Duterte to The Hague in March, to face charges of crimes against humanity for his war on drugs dating back to his term as mayor of Davao City.

- By JUANIYO ARCELLANA

The airport standoff and subsequent flight out to the Netherlands was the first big story, sensational yet a bit anticlimactic after he had once said he would kick the International Criminal Court and slap its prosecutor.

The Duterte ill-luck extended to the daughter and Vice President, who was impeached by Congress for unaccounted profligate use of intelligence and confidential funds in the second quarter, with hearings taking up much of daytime TV, but hemming and hawing of the Senate pushed back whatever semblance of formal trial, later affirmed by the Supreme Court that the complaint violated the rule of filing more than one in a year's time. The petitioners were advised to regroup and try again next February, much to the delight of Mary Grace Piattos and other alias recipients of such funds.

The catch phrase "bring him home" seemed to be the battle cry of the new selfstyled opposition or disgruntled former administration. partners, as a number of the Duterte allied candidates won in the midterm elections, garnering top slots in the Senate, including a surprise or two, then again so did the so-called kakampink or former dilawan that had a strong showing by garnering several seats in Congress.

There appeared to be a shift in the electorate demographics with the millennials and Gen Z making their presence felt, many of them first-time voters, with encouraging signs of the woke as traditional shoo-ins of showbiz personalities this time couldn't bank on popularity to gain electoral post.