It was one of my journalistic idols, Will Rogers, who memorably said that the man with the best job in the world is the vice president. “All he has to do is to get up every morning and ask, ‘How is the president?’” Rogers said.
An interesting question was posed by a friend recently: If Mar Roxas and Bongbong Marcos had won in the May 9 elections, would people demand that Roxas appoint Marcos to a Cabinet position?
I know, I know. That would be unthinkable—for the same people now pushing for a Cabinet posting for Vice President-elect Leni Robredo, anyway.
And yet, these same people, mostly remnants of the Yellow horde who still can’t move on from the defeat they snatched from what they thought was certain victory, will not accept that President-elect Rodrigo Duterte has the prerogative not to give any position to their “last woman standing.” So Duterte himself had to set them straight.
The plain-speaking new president said, and rightly so, that Robredo is from “the opposite side.” And that opposite side of the Yellows, the Robredo fans must certainly recall, did everything they could to derail Duterte’s candidacy.
Unlike Robredo herself, who suddenly found an outfit that wasn’t yellow for her proclamation in Congress after coming to work every day during the campaign in that execrable color, Duterte revels in sticking to his principles and ideas—no matter how bizarre they may sound. And that is why, according to him, the thought of giving a job to someone who was the understudy of Daang Matuwid (and who even shared that name on the ballot with her principal) never crossed his mind.
For me, Duterte cannot imagine giving a post to Robredo for the same reason that he finds it unnecessary to be proclaimed by the leaders of both Houses of Congress who also worked on the opposite side. Duterte is obviously someone who will not stand on tradition as long as he is breaking no law—and someone who has no patience for the “kaplastikan” that informs Philippine politics.
Previously, Duterte had already declared that there is no law that compels him to give a Cabinet position to Robredo. This despite the practice of all presidents since Cory Aquino to give their “spare tires” something to do for six years while they prepare to take over in case something happens to the main guy.
As for Robredo herself, right up to the end of the campaign, she played the willing foil for Roxas, declaring that working with Duterte, in case both of them won, would be “difficult.” “The VP should be the support of the president,” she told the news website Rappler last May 1, when asked if she could work with the Davao City mayor. “If your beliefs on important issues are different, it will be very difficult.”
Difficult, yes, but obviously not impossible. Like all good politicians, Robredo left that small window open for a compromise with Duterte—which Digong proceeded to slam shut.
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But I’m heartened by the fact that Robredo has never denied that she was seeking a Cabinet post in the incoming administration, something that was first reported in this space. I was hoping that she would issue a denial, because then I would be able to declare that she is not only an opportunistic turncoat but also a liar.
It was, after all, a close associate of Duterte’s who told me that Robredo was seeking the post of secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development from the new president. The offer was supposed to be made during a visit that Robredo would make to Davao City, which the Camarines congresswoman wanted the Duterte associate to arrange.
But the Duterte ally found it strange that Robredo made the offer through intermediaries and asked him to call her. “I didn’t want to call because it could be made to appear that I was reaching out to her, instead of her initiating the meeting with a call to me,” my source said.
“I wanted it clear that I was doing no such thing because I was not authorized to talk to Leni by Digong,” the source explained. “So I sent her a congratulatory text instead.”
According to this Duterte associate, he also checked with his fellow members in the highest level of the incoming president’s camp and was told, in no uncertain terms, that Digong was not interested in giving Robredo a job. “I also learned that Leni could go to Davao anytime she wanted, but there were no guarantees that she would be offered a job, or even be able to meet Digong,” he said.
Now, according to my source, Robredo is still angling for some job in the Duterte Cabinet, even if the DSWD post has already been given to Judy Taguiwalo, the activist professor from UP. “Maybe something like head of the Presidential Anti-Poverty Commission,” he said, a post which Leni could still use to jump-start her bid for the presidency in 2022.
If I were Leni, I’d give it a rest. And I’d be content with being Duterte’s spare tire, checking the health of Digong every day and hoping that he is somehow unable to finish his term.
