[Inside the Newsroom] Ready for ‘typhoon’ Inday

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We are prepared to cover 'typhoon' Inday the way she ought to be covered by journalists whose faithfulness is to the truth and whose accountability is to the public — whether doing so will favor the Vice President’s cause or not

In the weekly agenda and outlook that I sent for the week of July 6, I reminded the team that we were bracing for two Indays. It would be the first week of the impeachment trial of Vice President “Inday” Sara Duterte, and Super Typhoon Bavi was set to be named Inday once it entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility. 

The early memes I saw were derisive of Inday the person — that, just like Inday the tropical cyclone, she could only bring damage to our people. 

For her spinmeisters, meanwhile, the coincidence was too good to pass up — watch out: VP Inday, if and when stirred like a tempest, can be devastating to those along her path. 

On Tuesday, July 7, the Vice President’s attempt to wreak havoc on the news agenda was obvious. Unannounced, she appeared in the Senate ostensibly to meet with her defense lawyers. 

In fact, she was there to try to upstage the expected big story in the afternoon hearing — the replaying of incriminating broadcasts where she either admitted to thoughts of beheading President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., or revealed that she had contracted an assassin to kill the President, the First Lady, and the presidential cousin who was then-House speaker. 

Her chief of staff, lawyer Zuleika Lopez, doubled down on the messaging on Thursday, July 9, when she visited the Senate after learning that she would be called to the witness stand in the coming week. Followed around by reporters who wanted a statement from her, she indulged them with an equivocal “Good morning, everyone. Prepare for Typhoon Inday.”  

I have news for Attorney Lopez — who, by the way, was the trigger for that now-viral, unholy-hour Zoom meltdown of the Vice President on November 23, 2024. We are prepared to cover her “typhoon” Inday the way she ought to be covered by journalists whose faithfulness is to the truth and whose accountability is to the public — whether doing so will favor the Vice President’s cause or not.  

We’ve surfaced what she wanted suppressed. When considerable time was being wasted between the prosecution and the defense on whether to play the “Patayin mo si BBM” video, we re-uploaded, real-time, that video from our archives. 

We’ve not minced words about Sara’s propensity for violence being a serious concern about her fitness for office. Our executive editor Glenda Gloria calls it: “Language kills, and Duterte has proven it.”  

We’ve confronted the elephants in the room. Senior editor Herbie Gomez asked: Could Sara be behaving this way because of the unprocessed trauma of having been allegedly raped? (Which would make anyone wonder: who would dare do that to the daughter of Davao’s strongman?) She herself revealed that assault to protect her father from the backlash over his rape joke. 

In the closing part of our Day 3 impeachment panel discussion hosted by John Nery, I said it is necessary for the trial to call on psychiatrists to testify on the Vice President’s mental fitness to hold office given her consistent expression of murderous thoughts. 

We’ve guarded against her theatrics, spins, and quotables, providing context and fact checks on first break of any story — whether on the Rappler app’s Impeachment Trial channel or on our website. When Sara showed up at the Senate on Day 2 to deliver a one-liner of a statement in a supposed press conference, but skipped the impeachment court, reporter Jairo Bolledo immediately put the developments in perspective: Bloodbath-ready Sara Duterte appears at Senate, but not for trial. Why?

In the same live broadcast on Day 3, I asked Jairo how the journalists covering the defense side intend to deal with what we can expect to be the Vice President’s surprise appearances aimed at shaping the news agenda and therefore public discourse. He said they have resolved to always ask the “so what?” They will “look beyond the facts…look beyond the optics,” and situate her appearances and statements in the broader narrative. (At Rappler, that’s actually an SOP in all coverages.) 

So, yes, we’re prepared — and do not stop preparing — for that Inday. 

By the way, Super Typhoon Inday weakened before it could lay waste to parts of the Philippines. If anything, it was the southwest monsoon that triggered the intense rain. 

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