Vice-President Sara Duterte has become one big enigma to the nation.

Exactly two years after she took her oath of office as the country’s 15th Vice-President, Duterte stepped down both as Secretary of the Department of Education (DepEd) and as vice-chairperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

“Mga kababayan, ang aking pagbibitiw ay hindi lulan ng kahinaan, kundi dala ng tunay na malasakit para sa ating mga guro at kabataang Pilipino,” she declared in her resignation speech.

Long ago, people believed that the heavenly bodies were made up of not only air, water, fire, and earth but also another element, the quintessential or fifth essence. It was believed that if they could somehow isolate this element from the others, it would cure all diseases.