The vice president is the second highest official of the land. Ideally, he or she also holds a Cabinet position. As member of the Executive family, the vice president is the alter-ego of the President and is expected to be the face and voice of the chief executive—who cannot simultaneously attend to all concerns of all departments—in the field to which he or she is assigned.
This was how it was for Vice President Leni Robredo until December 2016, when she stepped down as chairperson of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council. The vice president’s resignation was prompted by President Rodrigo Duterte’s order that she desist from attending Cabinet meetings—this, after their rather promising start middle of last year.
Since then, Robredo’s main task has just been to wait until the presidency is vacated for one reason or another. She serves no other purpose than to be a spare official in the event of the President’s incapacitation—death, permanent disability, removal from office, or resignation.
Much goodwill and public resources besides are squandered here. During elections, the vice presidential campaign is distinct from that for president. This is exactly why the winners do not often come from the same ticket, and partnerships are determined not by oneness of purpose or similarity of vision, but on how one can boost the winning prospects of the other.
The result is an often-icy relationship between the two highest officials of the land that fails to maximize the potential of their working together for a common cause.
There is nothing that can be done about this, of course, outside of changing the provisions of the Constitution. In the meantime, we must live with the consequences of our choices —and what choices they are, now that talk about their possible removal from office dominate the headlines instead of the more pressing issues of hunger, joblessness, inequitable wealth distribution and poor infrastructure.
It is galling that resources, time and energy are wasted on adjusting the decisions we already made in May 2016. All this is getting in the way of real progress and legitimate change.
“She cannot wait to be President,” Mr. Duterte said, derisively, of his Vice President who recently spoke against alleged extrajudicial killings in a recorded message to the international community. Ms. Robredo, for her part, has denied her impatience.
We will not deny ours for these top officials to get their act together and get some actual work done.