Former president Rodrigo Duterte (left), Vice President Sara Duterte (MANILA BULLETIN)

Top officials of the Makabayan coalition said the Duterte clan is merely “pretending” to be opposition figures against the Marcos administration for the 2025 mid-term elections.

In a press briefing on Thursday, July 11, the group says the Dutertes are not genuine faces of opposition since their expected advocacies would not be different from those of the current administration.

“Anong isyu ang pwedeng dalhin ng mga Duterte para maging oposisyon sila? (What issue can the Dutertes bring to make them the opposition?)” asked Makabayan co-chairperson Neri Colmenares.

“Human rights? Bagamat may human rights violations ang administrasyong ito, ang mga Duterte ay walang karapatang magsalita dahil ‘yung panahon nila, grabe ang human rights violation na nangyari. Libo-libo ang namatay,” he said.

(Although this administration has human rights violations, the Dutertes have no right to speak because, in their time, the human rights violations that happened were severe. Thousands died.)

The former congressman of the Bayan Muna Party-list noted that even the proposed Charter change (Cha-cha) is not something that the Dutertes can figuratively stand against given their support for such a move during the administration of the family’s patriarch, former president Rodrigo Duterte.

“Hipokrito sila kung maging anti-Cha-cha sila dahil no’ng panahon ni Duterte siya ang tumutulak ng Cha-cha at pederalismo,” he stressed.

(They are hypocrites if they become anti-Cha-cha because it was during Duterte's time that he was pushing for Cha-cha and federalism.)

“Iyon ang paglilinaw namin sa mga nagpe-pretend, sa mga pretender na tulad ng mga Duterte na mago-oposisyon sa darating na halalan,” he stressed.

(That is what we are clarifying to the pretenders, to the pretenders like the Dutertes who are trying to be in the opposition in the upcoming elections.)

Colmenares says he is sure that the masses will not consider the Duterte family members as genuine figures of the opposition.

For him, the true opposition is the Makabayan bloc, which has remained consistent throughout several administrations when it comes to its principles and platforms for the Filipino people.

Recently, former senator Antonio Trillanes IV proposed that the Marcos administration may unite with its non-traditional allies to help curb the Duterte family’s atempt to gain more power.

This was seen as a response to the earlier pronouncement of Vice President Sara Duterte that her father, the former president; and brothers Paolo and Sebastian intend to run for the Senate in next year's polls.

The lady Duterte was tagged as the "opposition leader" by some when she resigned from the Marcos Cabinet. However, she has since refused this label.