How does the old Chinese saying go? May you live in interesting times.

That is exactly what we Filipinos are living through these days. Years and decades from now, we will look back at the last quarter of 2024 and ask ourselves: What the fudge was that all about?

(Ok, ok, I used fudge instead of another word starting with the letters F and U. Live with it, folks.)

The past few days have been some of the weirdest where Philippine politics is concerned.

At the center of the storm was VP Sara, although the other key player — BBM — has been unusually silent on the matter.

Is he simply biding his time, or is he truly stumped at the unexpected turn of events?

Sara has hurled the literal gauntlet at the foot of Bongbong, and he has to plot his reaction with care.

For now, it seems his solution is to do nothing at all, and let his cordon sanitaire take care of the mess his running mate in the last election is leaving behind.

In my book, this is either a brilliant move, or dumb as hell. I am leaning towards the latter. The only thing that can be gathered thus far is that he is listening more to his wife and First Lady than any other closet adviser.

It seems as if the Marcos and Duterte clans are playing a chess game, where there are no hard and fast rules. And from the looks of things, it appears that the political family from Davao is winning.

They have hogged the headlines, mostly due to the silence coming out of the Office of the President. It is beyond deafening. I can almost imaging Bongbong sleeping nights in a fetal position, with his wife whispering in his ear that everything will be well eventually.

It won’t.

The short-term actions Junior takes will determine how the remainder of his presidency will play out.

A seemingly neutral party, former senator Ping Lacson, has called for a ceasefire between the two camps.

They do not have to smoke the peace pipe. What they can do is akin to where North and South Korea stand at this point. The two nations have forged a cessation of hostilities some 70 years now, and it has held for the most part.

But technically, they are still in a state of war.

There may have been talks in the past to reunite, but this is not likely to happen. Which is a shame, as a united Korea can be a potent military and economic power. Superpower even.

A reunited Marcos and Duterte tandem can be an extremely potent political force, one that can keep a stranglehold on power for decades to come.

It’s a good thing that such a scenario is most unlikely to happen anytime soon.

There is still one key person who may or may not play a huge role in what is to happen in  the coming days, weeks, and months: the president’s own sister, his ‘ate’ no less.

Senator Imee Marcos paying a visit to the VP’s hospitalized chief of staff could be interpreted in a number of ways.

She may yet be the key that helps resolve the crisis, and crisis it truly is. Or she may just be searching for a role to play that makes her relevant

Imee says that she remains a friend and ally of VP.

This despite the fact that Ms Duterte had said not too long ago that she would remove the mortal remains of the late dictartor from the Libingian ng Mga Bayani, and dump them on the West Philippine Sea.

Despite this, Imee shrugged the threat aside. Maybe because she knows that it is physically impossible even for a sitting vice president to exhume the wax dummy that is supposed to be the remains of old man Makoy, and take them to waters where the China Coast Guard is usually on patrol.

Sara and Imee appear to be on still friendly-ish terms, as it makes sense for them to remain civil to each other, politically.

It is no secret that Imee is a lot smarter than her baby brother. She is able to spring surprises anytime, just like Sara. Recall that not too long ago, the senator spurned her own brother’s political party by saying she would seek re-election next year as an independent.

That might have hurt a little, but baby brother just said his party would still support Ate Imee, whether she liked it or not.

I cannot for the life of me recall anytime in the past when Philippine politics was this messy.

Back in the day, we knew who was who and what was what. You were either with the Liberal Party  or the Nacionalista Party, and the two took turns ruling national as well as local politics.

Were Apo Makoy still alive now, he would ask wife Imelda to spank their two adult kids, even if both are already senior citizens.

To put it mildly, the state of Philippine politics today borders on the dangerous. One wrong move by either of the warring parties could result in chaos, the likes of which we have never seen anytime in the past.

In one small way, it does harken back to the times when a VP goes against a President because they came from two separate parties. 

BBM and Sara are a different case. They were elected as one ticket.

Perhaps the closest similarity is when Doy Laurel  – remember him? – broke his ties with Cory Aquino, but this situation was quickly resolved when the president appointed a senior senator to assume the vice presidency.

Aquino’s move cut Laurel down to size fast.

Such is not the case with Sara. 

Bongbong may tell his allies in the House to impeach her, and this could happen in a flash. But her trial by the Senate becomes a lot more iffy. 

Duterte may officially have only three allies in the Senate, but in truth there are a good number who are very likely not ready to have Duterte removed, thereby resulting in a stalemate.

This means that for the near and mid-term, the country’s political situation will remain as messy as it is today.

We certainly are living in interesting times, aren’t we?