PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. undertook the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte to block the shoo-in for the presidency in 2028, so he could get somebody to his liking. If that was the strategy, the latest evidence suggests it has backfired — not because Sara has been untouched by controversy, but because the proceedings have transformed her from an embattled vice president into the country’s most visible opposition figure. The persecution against her has only strengthened her charisma. That fits with philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s famous aphorism: “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.”
The more the administration has tried to claim Sara Duterte’s guilt, on trial, the more the public has placed Marcos Jr. and his government on trial. The impeachment was intended to test Sara’s fitness for office. Instead, it has intensified doubts about the administration’s motives, performance and morality.
Indeed, Marcos’ minions have become so desperate as to even accuse Sara, as Philippine Star columnist and former Estrada go-fer Ronaldo Llamas did, of being a “traitor” for being linked to a company that was exporting products to China.
Does this idiot think that tycoons like Lucio Tan, the Sys of SM, Ramon Ang of San Miguel, the Gokongweis and Carlos Chan, who all have operations in China, as well as the 1,200 local companies that exported to China last year the equivalent of 11 percent of the country’s total exports, are traitors?
The other day, the prosecution presented a witness who claimed Sara had billions in unexplained wealth. His basis — “documents” that the prosecution supplied him that he pored over in only three weeks, without even trying to get Sara and her husband’s explanation — crucial in one-topic documents like tax returns and AMLC reports. While he claims to be a forensic accountant, he is not: he is not certified by the Philippine Institute of Certified Forensic Accountants. He is an anti-Sara Yellow activist, having been with groups that have been demanding her impeachment since last year, and had even met with Leni Robredo late last year, for reasons he did not disclose.
The strongest evidence that Marcos’ impeachment project has backfired is the latest Pulse Asia presidential preference survey conducted from Sept. 17 to 24, 2026. Sara leads every hypothetical presidential contest presented. She receives 52 percent in a three-way race against former vice president Leni Robredo and Sen. Raffy Tulfo, 57 percent against Sen. Erwin Tulfo and Sen. Risa Hontiveros, 57 percent against Erwin Tulfo and Sen. Bam Aquino, 54 percent against Robredo in a two-way race, and 60 percent against Hontiveros.
Message
The survey results offer a clear political message: The impeachment has not produced the collapse in Sara’s support that the Marcos camp wanted.
The most politically significant result is the 52 percent-30 percent-14 percent in a three-way contest involving Sara, Robredo and Raffy Tulfo. Sara leads Robredo by 22 percentage points and Tulfo by 38 points. More important, however, is the consistency of her advantage.
Sara does not lead in only one favorable matchup. She remains ahead when the names are changed, when the field expands and when she faces a rival one-on-one. In the two-way contest against Robredo, Sara leads 54 percent to 40 percent. Against Hontiveros, she leads 60 percent to 23 percent. That consistency points to a durable political base that has survived the impeachment campaign and has even been strengthened by it.
Contrast
The latest presidential preference figures also become more meaningful when placed beside earlier 2026 data.
A Pulse Asia survey conducted from Feb. 27 to March 2 presented Sara in a six-way field and gave her 43 percent, followed by Leni Robredo at 27 percent and Raffy Tulfo at 19 percent. In separate head-to-head matchups, Sara led Robredo 51 percent to 43 percent, while she and Tulfo were tied at 46 percent each.
The more recent September survey the shows Sara at 52 percent in the three-way Duterte-Robredo-Tulfo contest, compared with 43 percent in the earlier six-way field. That represents a nine-point increase.
The political direction is striking. In March, Sara was either slightly leading or tied with her principal potential rivals. By September, she was leading decisively in every candidate set shown.
Lead
Her lead over Robredo also widened. In the February-March survey, Sara led Robredo by eight points, 51 percent to 43 percent. In the September two-way contest, her advantage was 14 points, 54 percent to 40 percent. These figures show that the impeachment has not damaged Sara’s presidential prospects. Her position has even become more secure.
Sara’s Mindanao base is the foundation of her national lead. A 94-percent preference rating in the region is not merely a favorable result; it is an extraordinary territorial base. She also performed strongly among all socioeconomic groups, receiving 47 percent among Class ABC respondents, 50 percent among Class D and 70 percent among Class E.
It is her huge Mindanao base, and her corps of articulate believers in social media, which makes implausible the scenario claimed by Marcos minions that, as in the case of candidate Jojo Binay in 2016, the constant barrage of black propaganda will reduce her votes by election day. But Binay never had a solid base of support as Sara does with her Mindanao and social media followers. As important is the fact that Binay’s support eroded not just because of the Yellows’ black propaganda: it was because a charismatic figure, Rodrigo Duterte, emerged to claim his base.
The Marcos minions’ strategy was to bribe senator-judges enough so that there would be the required votes to convict Sara. This indeed worked in late chief justice Renato Corona’s impeachment trial, with President Benigno Aquino III giving the senator judges P100 to P150 million each in pork-barrel funding through the so-called Disbursement Acceleration Plan, getting 20 senators to vote Corona guilty.
But Marcos has run out of time for this strategy because the first impeachment move was delayed for a year as the case that there cannot be more than one such move per year was brought before the Supreme Court. Hence, the Marcos minions had to wait a year to file another impeachment case.
Penultimate
As a result, the Marcos-controlled House of Representatives got to undertake the impeachment process only this year, which is the penultimate year for Marcos’ presidency. This is in contrast to Corona’s impeachment which was undertaken at the middle of the Aquino presidency in 2012, and when his popularity was at its height.
This means that senators hoping to profit from Marcos’ largesse if they convict Sara will have only a very limited time, one fiscal year, to do so. Worse for them, the administration has been hit by the worst scandal ever in our history, the ghost flood control corruption scandal, which has, with a more vigilant citizenry, made pork-barrel type of bribes difficult. Because of that scandal, senators who would have been easily bribed during Marcos’ first years would be hesitant to follow his orders: Why should they when he is now a lame duck?
The Marcos minions also made a huge mistake in calling Sara’s brother Sebastian “Baste” to the witness stand. Baste proved to have such gravitas that he could replace Sara if she is found guilty and banned from running for the presidency in 2028. The winning Duterte brand could be easily be transferred to Baste. Think about it this way: If Sara accompanies Baste in each and every rally, and if his campaign materials all show his sister raising his hand, voters would not hesitate to check the “Duterte” box in the ballot.
Filipinos after all did not vote Benigno Aquino III because they believed that he was qualified just because he carried the Aquino brand. It will be the same phenomenon if it is Baste who runs for the presidency.
Marcos and his minions certainly deserve such karmic twist: They spent billions of pesos and expended so much energy to block Sara from being president, yet in the end, it is her brother who will run and win the presidency.
Marcos’ minions have actually been on a very wrong tack. About a year and a half to the May 2028 elections, Robredo is still stuck in Naga City in political limbo. No way for Erwin to be anything but senator in 2028. With the elections on the horizon, they find themselves with no viable candidate.
Facebook: Rigoberto Tiglao
X: @bobitiglao
Website: www.rigobertotiglao.com
