I’d like to start my own online petition. I want Leni to head up the government while the President is away on a foreign visit sometime soon.
No, I’ve not turned into a Robredo fan—far from it. I just want to find out if the vice president is telling the truth when she says she’s not plotting the overthrow of the president and if she’s capable of leading the country, even if it’s just in a caretaker capacity.
Allow me to explain:
Since President Rodrigo Duterte started going abroad two months ago, he’s designated Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea as caretaker of the government while he’s away. This week, during Duterte’s trip to Japan, he took Medialdea with him, leading some people to ask who’s been left to mind the store.
The answer to that question is easy: Still not Vice President Leni Robredo.
Duterte left the government in the hands of a committee headed by Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno. The committee’s members also include Senior Deputy Executive Secretary Maynard Guevarra and former Davao City administrator and now Undersecretary Melchor Quitain.
Why not Robredo, who’s also a member of the Duterte Cabinet as housing czarina and next in line to the President in order of succession? It’s really not that simple, one Duterte administration official explained to me.
“The president still doesn’t really trust Robredo,” he said. “If you were him, would you?”
Robredo was last in the news when her office dismissed reports that she had met with outgoing United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon in Quito, Ecuador, supposedly to seek the latter’s “blessing” for a plan to oust Duterte. A photograph of the Robredo-Ban encounter had earlier been released by the vice president’s office, which Robredo said was merely a chance meeting at the sidelines of a UN conference on housing and sustainable development that both of them attended.
“They had small talk,” said a spokesman for Robredo. “It was a very informal meeting.”
The UN, of course, has been in the Duterte doghouse for some time, mainly because the president has objected to the criticisms lobbed by the organization’s human rights rapporteurs against his administration’s war on drugs. To some in Duterte’s inner circle (and to many of his fans outside it), Robredo was consorting with a known enemy when she had her picture taken with the UN’s Ban.
Robredo has routinely been linked to such plots. Sometimes, it’s really her fault that she’s been suspected of involvement, like when she posed with Ban or when she issues statements that seem at odds with Duterte’s own stated policies; other times, it’s just because she was not Duterte’s running mate and stands to benefit the most if Digong somehow fails to finish his term.
And then there are times when Robredo just does one of those things that make you scratch your head, like her latest photograph which showed her on the street, smiling, with a “dirty” ice cream cone in her hand. And right behind her was the expensive white Land Cruiser SUV that she apparently tools around in, when she’s not stopping to buy cheap local refreshments in a bid to make her look like she’s one of us.
It’s just the latest version of her now-famous picture showing her waiting for a ride on the side of a street where no bus ever stops. No sane person—or no one who doesn’t plan to deceive, anyway —would do the things Leni does.
★★★★★
But my proposal to put Robredo in charge while Duterte is away is made in all seriousness. First of all, I want to know if Leni can be trusted not to overthrow Digong and take over the government while the duly-elected president is not in the country.
Think about it: What better way is there to test Robredo’s repeated disavowals of participation in any oust-Duterte plot than to temporarily hand over the reins to her?
It will be like that test of resolve and emotional intelligence given to kids who are asked to sit in front of a jar full of cookies and told not to touch any. If Leni fails that test and makes a grab for power, she will have failed.
I don’t think there’s any real danger. If Duterte’s supporters are convinced that the people will not allow any attempt by Robredo to bring down the president and supplant him, they will not be afraid to try this test on her.
Second, and equally important, I want to find out if Robredo can actually run the government, especially if a crisis develops while she is its caretaker. What would Leni do if some calamity, natural or man-made, happens while she is in charge?
I can’t really say if Robredo is part of any plot to destabilize or remove Duterte. All I know is that recent history tells us that people who assume the vice presidency always start believing that they are, as the political axiom says, one heartbeat away from the Big Adobo.
If it’s true, as Duterte keeps saying, that he’s willing to risk his life, his honor and the presidency itself to do the job he set out to do, maybe he can try this experiment. Let Leni run things while he’s away next time and take the presidency for a test drive.
At the very least, she’ll be able to justify the tax money she spends. She’ll be so busy, she won’t have time for those staged, pathetically fake photographs that she’s known for.