While Sara Counts Confidential Funds, Liza Launches Books and the Poor Lose Homes

Snow White Audits Herself, Marie Antoinette Hosts a Concert, and the Poor Pay the Bill

By Louis ‘Barok‘ C. Biraogo — November 14, 2025

Marie Antoinette’s Malacañang After-Party: “It’s Not a Party, It’s a Book Launch”

Split-screen, November 2025:
Left side – a barefoot mother in Tondo uses a plastic basin to bail out her sinking shack while Typhoon Tino laughs.
Right side – First Lady Liza, perfectly coiffed, applauds a Goldenberg concert because nothing says “empathy” like Beethoven while barangays float away.
In the middle, Vice President Sara Duterte counts her missing confidential funds and still finds time to clutch pearls over the party.
Two elite camps, one flooded country, zero shame. Keep watching—this circus has an intermission paid for by your taxes.

Snow White vs. the Palace: A Fairy-Tale Feud While Rome Floods

Call it what they will—“official,” “cultural,” “a tribute to past First Ladies”—but a party is a party when the barangays are underwater. Liza Araneta-Marcos glided through Malacañang on November 6 and 7, launching Philippine First Ladies’ Portraits and swaying to the Goldenberg Concert Series while Negros Occidental waded, Bulacan sank, and Catanduanes mourned. The Palace’s defense? A masterclass in Marie Antoinette cosplay. Presidential Communications Office (PCO) Undersecretary Claire Castro sniffed that it wasn’t “wearing costumes like Snow White to a party”—a jab so petty it could fit in a thimble. Snow White? Really? While families lose homes, livelihoods, and loved ones, the Palace’s press secretary is auditioning for Mean Girls: Malacañang Edition.

Republic Act No. 6713 (RA 6713), the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials, demands “utmost responsibility” and “respect for the people’s sentiments.” Translation: when your citizens are bailing water with plastic basins, you don’t throw a soirée. You don’t justify it as “promoting Filipino talent.” You don’t hide behind “protocol” while the poor drown in the optics of your indifference. This isn’t just tone-deaf. It’s a moral flatline.

**Champagne flutes on top, plastic basins below—guess which one actually bails out the country?**

Sara Duterte’s Jujitsu: Throwing Stones from a Glass Mansion

Enter Vice President Sara Duterte, righteous fury in a press conference, demanding: “Why are there parties while our fellow citizens are suffering?” A fair question. A necessary question. A question that would carry weight—if it came from anyone but her. Sara, darling of the whistleblower cosplay, positions herself as the people’s avenger. She claims she warned President Marcos about Department of Education (DepEd) budget anomalies. She fumes that the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI), created by Executive Order No. 94, is just “narrative control.” She wants accountability.

Let’s check her own ledger.

P12.3 billion in unsettled DepEd transactions under her watch.
P625 million in confidential funds—poof!—vanished into “internal probes” she refuses to detail.
An impeachment complaint for graft, betrayal of public trust, and a rap sheet longer than the C-5 extension.

This is political jujitsu: use the Palace’s stumble to flip the script, pre-empt the ICI’s findings, and paint herself as the incorruptible heir. Two dynasties, one tarnished coin, flinging mud in a glass house while the floodwaters rise. Sara, if you want to lead the morality parade, open your own books first. The poor can’t eat your press releases.

The Poor Pay the Bill: Flooded Homes, Empty Promises, Elite Drama

Shift the camera from the chandeliers to the carnage. In Quezon, a father carries his paralyzed mother on his back through chest-deep water. In Bulacan, a sari-sari store owner watches her inventory float away—her life’s savings, gone in a night. In the provinces, flood control projects—billions allocated, billions “anomalous”—fail year after year because the money lines pockets, not levees. The ICI was supposed to investigate. Instead, it’s a political football. The Palace parties. The Vice President postures. And the poor? They’re collateral damage in a feud funded by their taxes, their suffering, their silence. Every peso stolen from flood control is a death sentence for the marginalized. Every hour spent on Snow White snipes is an hour not spent on rescue boats. This isn’t elite drama—it’s a luxury the poor pay for with their lives.

Final Verdict: A Nation Drowning in Hypocrisy

This is not about a book launch. Not about a concert. Not about a costume. This is about a republic that measures leadership in selfies while its people measure survival in inches of water.

To the First Lady: the next Palace concert should be held in a flooded barangay. Let the violins compete with the cries of evacuees. Maybe then the music will resonate.

To Undersecretary Castro: I recommend a new title for the First Lady’s collection—A Short History of Tone-Deaf Leadership. It’s a page-turner.

To Vice President Duterte: you wish to lead? Then open your own books before you critique the Palace guest list. The poor deserve leaders, not hypocrites.

And to every official in this circus: when one Filipino has no dry roof, no party is acceptable. The floodwaters don’t care about your dynasties. They don’t care about your optics. They only rise. Will you?