“The Cringe of Backtracking: Sara Duterte’s Dangerous Dance with Denial”
Vice President Sara Duterte’s recent backtrack of a death threat she made earlier this week is a striking reflection of the culture of cringeworthy self-denial that has come to characterize the Duterte and its camarilla. This move of downplaying her statement as a mere “hyperbole” or “taken out of context” only adds to the long list of absurdities and contradictions that have plagued this administration like its predecessor..
For years, people have heard Duterte and its camarilla have mastered the art of reducing statements to hyperboles and downplaying indiscretions to the point of bending the law to justify their actions. Whether it’s the use of secret funds, the extrajudicial killings, the illegal gambling operations, or the blatant appeasement of China under the guise of an “independent foreign policy,” the Duterte wing have thrived on minimizing the damage caused by their policies. This strategy, however, does not erase the glaring truth—it only fuels the public’s desire to expose the lies and hypocrisy that lie beneath the rhetoric of unity.
The latest episode involving Duterte’s backtracking on her death threat is perhaps one of the more telling moments in this ongoing spectacle. After the threat stirred a wave of concern from the National Security Council, the Armed Forces, and the National Bureau of Investigation, all of whom took the matter seriously enough to issue statements and subpoenas, Duterte chose to downplay it. Her claim that the threat was “taken out of context” is perplexing, especially given that she had the full backing of a loyal base of supporters who would have likely stood by her no matter what.
So why the retreat? Why deny the words once spoken so confidently? Is it because the backlash forced her to reconsider the gravity of the threat, or is it simply an attempt to salvage a tarnished image? The answer lies in the calculated nature of her words, which, much like the government’s other controversial policies, are tailored to suit the moment and avoid accountability.
The issue at hand is not just the death threat itself, but the broader implications of how such rhetoric is employed to distract from the deeper problems facing the nation. Whether it’s the continuous violations of human rights, the manipulation of public opinion, or the emboldening of authoritarian tendencies, Duterte and her allies have consistently sought to frame these issues as “hyperboles” or “misunderstandings” that are simply part of the political discourse. But this deliberate downplaying of facts only serves to further entrench a dangerous mindset that allows these policies to continue unchecked.
As the administration scrambles to minimize the damage, it becomes clear that the rhetoric of “unity” is nothing more than a thin veil meant to conceal the underlying fractures in governance. Duterte and her camarilla, just like her father, may have thought they could weather the storm of controversy with evasions and misdirections, but the public is no longer willing to accept such facile explanations. The more they backtrack and downplay their actions, the more the people are driven to seek the truth—a truth that reveals not only their failings but the deepening divide between the rhetoric of unity and the reality of division.
At the end of the day, Sara Duterte’s backtrack on the death threat is not merely a slip of the tongue—it is part of a larger pattern of self-denial that has characterized this administration from the beginning. Until those in power are willing to accept responsibility for their words and actions, the public will continue to demand answers, and the cringeworthy dance of denial will only fuel further unrest.