Lawyer’s lament: ‘Do we still want to vote for these kinds of people?’

EARLY MORNING MELTDOWN. In this videograb, Vice President Sara Duterte again lets it all out against the first couple and their allies in the House of Representatives at an online press conference she called on Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024.

MANILA, Philippines — “Is this what we want for our government? Is this what we deserve from our political leaders?”

This was what law lecturer and constitutionalist Michael Henry Yusingco said about Vice President Sara Duterte’s latest rant over the weekend, in connection with the midterm and general elections in 2025 and 2028.

For Yusingco, the electorate should seriously ponder whether the country needs the same kind of leaders.

READ: League of cities condemns VP Duterte’s ‘outburst’ vs Marcos

“I want our voters to look at what’s happening now and really internalize it and say to themselves—do we still want to vote for these kinds of people? So definitely, this should affect the 2025 elections and 2028 elections,” the lawyer told the Inquirer.

He said what Duterte did was a display of “unbecoming conduct, unbecoming behavior with their words and with their actuations.”

Government officials are still expected to “display a high degree of decorum and civility,” Yusingco said. “Because we want to see from them that they are working for the people, not for themselves.” —Kathleen de Villa