Doy Laurel could be described as the very soul of classiness, compared to Leni Robredo. The Yellows, of course, would never accept that, despite the abundant evidence of Leni’s latter-day brand of whiny opposition and her followers’ quickness to take imaginary offense.
Some people are trying to make a big deal out of the fact that President Rodrigo Duterte left out the name of Robredo during his speech at the graduation ceremonies of the Philippine Military Academy over the weekend. That, and the fact that Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana sat between Duterte and Robredo during the same event, which was billed as the first time the two top officials in the land met in public since Robredo resigned from Duterte’s Cabinet.
Understandably, most of the people making noise about the supposed double insult on Robredo are supporters of the vice president. They claim that Duterte’s speechwriter not only slighted Robredo when he or she left out the Veep’s name at the start of his prepared speech, but also that she was disrespected some more when Lorenzana was made to sit between the two of them.
I cannot understand what the fuss is all about. First of all, Duterte made a big deal of mentioning the presence of Robredo when he remembered that he had not done so, soon after he started reading his prepared speech.
Then Duterte went into his usual jokester mode, declaring that he and Robredo should just beat up the person who wrote his speech. In his usual too-chivalrous way, he praised Robredo’s “beauty” and other good traits before proceeding with the reading of the speech.
As far as the seating arrangement is concerned, I don’t think anyone in his right mind would disagree that the PMA graduation is a military event. Lorenzana, as a former general who is now head of the defense and military establishment, should be front and center in the ceremony; while Duterte and Robredo get to award the cadets who receive the traditional presidential and vice presidential saber, respectively, I’m sure they would not mind if the defense chief is at the center of the whole shebang.
The thing about the Leni-loving faction is that is so quick to take offense even where none was intended. And adherents of the Yellow faith who have embraced Robredo as the savior of this country keep forgetting that it is the vice president who keeps provoking Duterte into taking action against their idol— and when he does, they pretend that she is being unjustly singled out for persecution.
But it is always good to remember, when Robredo and her fans cry that she’s being oppressed by Duterte, that she is no longer part of the Cabinet because she wants to be both working there and to remain critical of almost every action or policy of the president. (In fact, she wasn’t even fired— she just left after she was told not to attend Cabinet meetings anymore since she seemed hell-bent on attending anti-Duterte protest actions, anyway.)
Going further back in the Yellow hagiography, the sidelining of a critical, non-cooperative vice president is actually revered as a good thing by adherents of the political faith of the Aquino family. This is why Salvador Laurel was actually jeered at by the first-generation Yellows when the sainted-but-not-yet Cory Aquino refused to have anything to do with her running mate anymore, early on in her term.
Doy was a Batangueno gentleman of the old school who quietly accepted his fate as the designated “fly” in the Aquino ointment—and who faded into the background when Cory’s lapdogs started seeing him as a threat. Leni, who is a new breed of Yellow, just cannot understand that kind of class.
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Senator Panfilo Lacson has been saying it for some time, actually: His colleague in the Senate, the ever-obnoxious Antonio Trillanes IV, is part of a wide-ranging plot to destabilize the Duterte government.
And Lacson is not one to make hasty, unsubstantiated claims against anyone. In his many years in the Senate, Lacson has matured into a tough, deliberate and independent lawmaker who calls it exactly as he sees it, never mind the consequences on himself.
Of course, nearly everyone believes that Trillanes is really plotting to oust Duterte. If somebody actually paid him to do it, I’d even wager that Trillanes would attempt yet another military uprising against the president—although I doubt very much if his old Magdalo cohort would still join him.
But going back to Lacson’s theory, the senator explains that the plot involves the human-rights organizations, local and foreign media and other groups in and out of Congress that want to remove Duterte. And while Lacson did not say it, I believe that all of these forces are actually pushing Robredo to take over, once they have succeeded in taking out the former mayor from Davao, whom they perceive to be as much of an outsider and political arriviste as Joseph Estrada was —only with a lot more brains and popular appeal who is an order of magnitude better at playing the political game at the highest level.
Not that Leni needs a lot of pushing. She would love to be the last man standing who is really a woman, as her adherents say.
If Trillanes succeeds, of course. And that’s about the biggest “if” in this country today.