U.S Pays Obeisance to “President Baste”

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

 U.S ​Ambassador to the Philippines Lee Lipton visited recently Davao City Mayor Baste Duterte. The envoy met there too Senator Robin Padilla – in a Muslim dress and an Indonesian Sonkok hat - and Senator Bong Go – all rabid allies of the Duterte family from former president Rodrigo Duterte, Vice President Sara Duterte, and the present Hizzoner of the Durian City. The Dutertes are friends too of America’s economic and military rival China in the Indo-Pacific Region.

PHOTOS BELOW from left to right: 

US Ambassador to the Philippines Lee Lipton (far left) visited Davao City on October 22 and shook hand with Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte at the Davao City Hall; Vice President Richard Nixon met with Cuba El Jefe Maximo (The Supreme Leader) Fidel Castro in April 1959; Cuban leader Castro, left, and Communist Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev hug at the United Nations in September 20, 1960.

Was Ambassador Lipton playing “Larong Pinoy Intsik” in the geo-military politics that shrouded the affairs since the Cold War? Playing “Intsik” in the Pinoyland means a Filipino-Chinese oligarch gives financial contribution to all the presidential rivals so he can still get the goodwill for his business of whoever wins the electoral derby.

The Dutertes are very popular before the eyes of the Filipino despite the pro-U.S President Bongbong Marcos and his cops sending the “Butcher of the Drug War” former President Digong Duterte to the slammer in the International Criminal Court in the The Hague because of the vitriol and seditious statements the ole’ man had ranted against the “narco addict” Marcos when he was still in the corruption besieged country. That was political survival for McCoy Jr. not to mention the warrant of arrest from the ICC against Duterte because of his Crime Against Humanity.

POPULAR

Vice President Sara got 50% against probable presidential rivals Naga City Mayor Leni Robredo (26%) and Senator Raffy Tulfo (12%) in the September 17 to 24, 2026 in the poll of Pulse Asia Research, Inc. Duterte allies like Senator Go led the vice-presidential race with 31% and followed by Sen. Padilla with 19% in the same survey outfit.

Did the Yanks accept the truth that despite the inevitable impeachment of La Sara, Baste can take over and become president of this forsaken country?

Were the Americans play chummy with the family they see as Manchurian candidate but could not do anything but to befriend them lest they could hail them to their side against the menacing power of the Sino in the region?

WILL HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF?

The Yankees had fallen to this pitfall when the friends they thought pivoted to the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Nation leaders come to my mind: The rabble rousing Cuba’s Fidel Castro, the tall sartorially elegant western liberal former Lt. Colonel and Egypt’s President Gamal Abdel Nasser, and Somalia Major General Mohamed Siad Barre.

Let’s just talk about Fidel Castro – whom my bookworm military father once in a while cited to me in highschool how he duped U. S President Ike Eisenhower:

n  The United States immediately recognized Castro provisional government on January 7, 1959, just six days after he ousted the corrupt and brutal President Fulgencio Batista – a lowly Sergeant Stenographer who became an Army Chief of Staff, sanamagan! - who fled Cuba for his life.

n  During the revolution and the immediate months following his victory, Castro publicly denied being a communist. He framed his movement as a nationalist, democratic revolution meant to restore Cuba’s 1940 constitution and end corruption. He frequently invoked Abraham Lincoln and the U.S. Founding Fathers during his initial interviews. Susmariosep, I remembered my Bible teacher Mom Daisy telling her students at the Protestant college in rustic M'lang , Cotabato: "The Devil quoting the scripture from the Bible".

n  U.S. companies held massive investments in Cuba, dominating the island's sugar, cattle, utilities, and oil industries. The Eisenhower administration believed that promptly recognizing and working with the new government was the best way to safeguard those extensive economic assets.

n  Castro was a charismatic celebrity who enjoyed overwhelming support from the Cuban public and favorable coverage from the American media. In April 1959, he embarked on a wildly popular charm offensive tour of the U.S., speaking to journalists and meeting with Vice President Richard Nixon.

n  El Commandante Castro diplomatic "friendship" with the Gringos (Psst Americans!) was short-lived. Within months, relations soured as Castro began conducting summary executions of Batista loyalists, delaying promised free elections, nationalizing American-owned properties without compensation, and aligning Cuba with the Soviet Union. By late 1960, the U.S. responded with an economic embargo, fracturing relations completely until now under the gung-ho administration of Pres. Donald Trump.

Would Uncle Sam be conned again if a Duterte wins the presidential diadem in the 2028 election?  

What say you my dear readers?

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WRITER is a political science and history professor.