07/11/2025
EDITORIAL | Marcos Can’t Govern Without Duterte in His Mouth—and DOJ Remulla Proves It
OPTIC Politics DEPO | July 11, 2025
Watch this circus carefully: DOJ Secretary Crispin Remulla feverishly stitching together wild legal theories to link former President Rodrigo Duterte to anything under the sun. Why? Because the Marcos administration has nothing else to offer—no vision, no competence, no backbone—except Duterte’s name as a crutch.
It’s pathetic—and dangerous.
This government cannot run on its own steam. It cannot stand before the public with pride in its policies or its so-called “achievements.” Instead, it clings obsessively to Duterte: a man they fear, envy, and yet desperately need. Remulla’s latest moves expose the truth: Marcos Jr.’s presidency survives only by keeping Duterte at the center of political conversation. Without him, there is nothing to mask its incompetence.
Look around. Inflation is strangling every Filipino family; rice and vegetable prices spike like daily punishments. The West Philippine Sea? We get empty statements while Chinese vessels do as they please. Agriculture? Reduced to importation scandals and smuggling headlines. What does Malacañang do in the face of all this? They let Remulla spin theories so the news cycle forgets the country’s misery.
But let’s be clear: these aren’t real investigations. This is state-sponsored harassment—cooked up to keep Duterte’s name dirty and keep Marcos looking relevant. Remulla isn’t serving justice; he’s serving political survival on a tarnished platter.
And what does it show us? That even now—three years into Marcos’s term—the administration admits it cannot lead. It cannot inspire. Its greatest fear isn’t Duterte’s guilt or innocence—it’s irrelevance the moment they stop talking about him.
Duterte, for all his faults, left behind a memory Marcos Jr. can’t erase and can’t replicate. And the public sees it: Remulla’s witch-hunt is not strength—it’s a confession of weakness. A government sure of itself would focus on fixing lives, not fixing headlines.
This game is bigger than Duterte. If the DOJ can turn legal power into a political sword against someone as popular as a former president, what stops them from wielding it next against journalists, activists, or everyday citizens who dare to criticize?
It’s time to say it out loud: Marcos Jr. cannot lead. He can only blame. He can only distract. And Remulla is the willing architect of that distraction. But history remembers cowards who hide behind prosecutors instead of standing tall with a plan for the nation.
Filipinos must refuse to be fooled. Enough with trials by rumor. Enough with cowardice disguised as governance. The country is hungry for real solutions—not another witch-hunt from a government terrified to be judged on its own pathetic record.
