Marcos brushes off Sara Duterte’s ire: Can’t force love

NO LOVE TO GIVE? President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. speaks to the media on September 13, on the sidelines of his participation in a BRICS Summit in New Delhi.

RTVM screenshot

The Philippine president, speaking at relative length for the first time on the legal woes of both former ally Vice President Sara Duterte and cousin Martin Romualdez, injects some levity in his responses

Even as his erstwhile political allies have been, one after the other, finding themselves embattled and facing legal woes, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. seemed unfazed — or at least tried to project as much — in an interview with reporters while in India. 

“If she feels very angry, I suppose, with what’s happening to her, and I am the target of that anger, or the main target of that anger, what can I do? You cannot force anyone to love you,” said Marcos of Vice President Sara Duterte in a media interview in New Delhi on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit on September 13. Marcos was in India to represent the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as chair, before the informal group’s meeting. 

Love — and the lack of it — is certainly a choice word to describe his relationship with Duterte. It was just in 2022 when the two, under the indomitable “Uniteam,” spoke warmly of each other in vlogs and campaign ads, even if they admittedly had no shared history. 

Much has changed since. 

The past weeks have been anything but funny for Duterte, Marcos’ 2022 running mate, erstwhile ally, and former alter-ego for education. 

Twice-impeached Duterte is the subject of a months-long Senate trial to determine if she is guilty of the allegations hurled against her by the House of Representatives. If she is convicted, she’ll lose her post and be perpetually barred from public office.

In the first week of September 2025, two months after her impeachment trial started, a warrant of arrest was issued against Duterte stemming from a grave threats case over her alleged assassination threats against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Marcos, and former House speaker Martin Romualdez. The same alleged assassination plan is the basis for Article IV of the impeachment raps against her. 

Duterte isn’t the only major political figure to find herself at the crosshairs of the law. 

Romualdez, a cousin of Marcos, was arrested — after he checked himself into a hospital — for a plunder case linked to some P7.44 billion in alleged kickbacks from national projects, including those meant to control flooding.

When asked about his cousin and one-time close adviser’s predicament — and allegations that he received special treatment — Marcos offered some levity, too. 

“So they have to say that. So that’s what they’re saying. They’re not commenting about — that’s not a comment on the procedures of court. It’s just another attack. We get them a lot,” said Marcos, when asked about criticism over Romualdez’s peculiar situation.

“God, you see, do you think you talk to him and see if he agrees with you? I don’t think. Of course, but this is political, right? It’s not really a comment on what’s happening. It’s not really a belief that it is, in fact, drama,” said Macos, brushing off special treatment allegations. 

Romualdez, House speaker from 2022 to 2025, has since been moved to the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital for an independent medical examination ordered by the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan.

The former House leader wants to be kept in hospital confinement as opposed to the New Quezon City Jail in Payatas, where high-profile officials and personalities detained over the flood control corruption scandal are usually detained. 

While these days, Duterte and Romualdez are nothing short of sworn enemies, there was a time when they worked together and with each other. Romualdez was one of Duterte’s two campaign managers in the 2022 vice presidential race. Romualdez, then House majority leader, would personally accompany the then-Davao mayor to sorties big and small around the Philippines. 

With love certainly lost between Marcos and Duterte, and even between Marcos and Romualdez — what awaits the Philippines under the last two years of Marcos Jr.’s presidency? – Rappler.com