Bob Tacto's columns

 Not Knowing Is Not a Defense On the thirty-first day of a trial that was supposed to be about the Vice President, the Senate found itself examining her brother. Davao City Mayor Sebastian "Baste" Duterte took the stand under subpoena. By day's end, Presiding Officer Francis "Chiz" Escudero had declared him a hostile witness, ruling that the mayor holds an interest adverse to the prosecution's case. If the allegations of procurement irregularities are proven, Escudero reasoned, the mayor could face direct liability alongside his sister. A witness compelled to testify in an impeachment trial was found to have a personal stake in its outcome. That is not a procedural footnote. It shows how tightly the Duterte family's public offices and private interests appear to have been woven together, and how little our institutions did to keep them apart. What is established, and what is not Precision matters here, so let me be plain about the limits of w...

On the morning of September 5, 2026, Vice President Sara Duterte walked into the Quezon City Regional Trial Court to post bail for three counts of grave threats. The charges were not abstract. They stemmed from her own televised words: a public admission that she had contracted an assassin to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and then-House Speaker Martin Romualdez if she herself were killed. The court had found probable cause, issued a warrant, and set bail at ₱360,000. She paid it, and her lawyers secured an order lifting the warrant. By any legal measure, the system worked. But the scene outside the courtroom told a different story. Surrounded by a security detail estimated at 400 personnel—more than the protective force assigned to the sitting President—Duterte paused on the courthouse steps, pointed to the armed officers, and invoked a ghost. “Did you know Ninoy Aquino died on the stairs?” she asked her lawyer. “There are so many fire...