To be fair to “vice president” Leni Robredo, she’s got a few ideas that are worth looking at, like her suggestion that a rehab programme be set up to support President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. According to Robredo, this is the “missing” component in Duterte’s campaign to rid the country of the drug scourge…
“For me, we need a more holistic solution to drugs rather than be reactive all the time,” Robredo said Tuesday in an interview in Bocaue, Bulacan, where she visited a housing project.
Robredo has spoken out against the spate of extrajudicial killings of suspected drug dealers or users but maintains that the Office of the Vice President is “very supportive” of the government’s anti-drug campaign.“In fact, we were talking about it in the office: What role can we perform to show our support to the President? What we saw that’s missing is rehabilitation. That’s where the gap is,” said Robredo, who was a human rights lawyer before entering politics.
One wonders, however, why Robredo is talking to the media instead of tabling her proposal at the next Cabinet meeting. A high-ranking member of the government such as Robredo pitching her proposal at the media not only comes across as an exercise in barking up the wrong tree, it also provides some insight on which side of Duterte’s Circle of Trust the current “vice president” is situated. Indeed, perhaps Robredo remains an outsider and not the insider that one would expect the second most powerful official in the Philippine Government to be.
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The explanation for this bizarre behaviour is likely to be quite simple. Robredo, it seems, would rather be a media whore than a team player in Duterte’s administration. It makes sense of course. As I write this, speculation is rife, thanks to her non-stop self-promotion, that Robredo is itching for her turn to become president. As our GRP commenter observed much is at stake and hinges on a Robredo presidency…
It seems she really cannot wait for something to happen to the current president. If Duterte makes it past the first half of 2019, the yellows will be in an even weaker position than they are in today. A number of yellow senators up for re-election in 2019 will have a hard time winning if the present anti-yellow climate continues and they have no more access to Smartmagic. Time is of the essence.
Politics in a “democracy”, after all, is all about being seen to be doing good in aid of ultimately winning elections. Robredo, true to this politician archetype, still seems to be in election campaign mode rather than getting down to the job of, well, doing her job as “vice president” and being a team player. The vice president, after all, is just a heartbeat away from the presidency. Yet, a chasm seems to separate Robredo from the incumbent president!
For many Filipinos, the traditional politician (trapo) persona that Robredo had morphed into over the last several months stands in stark contrast to the quiet vice presidency that her predecessor, former Vice President Jejomar Binay, maintained in the first few years of the previous administration.
The problem with Robredo grandstanding about her ideas before the media is that these ideas haven’t been vetted, peer-reviewed, nor deliberated at the right levels. In a sense, there is no substance backing whatever Robredo is telling the young hipster “reporters” who scramble to lap up every factoid they could get their hands on to make their deadlines.
In the case of Robredo’s rehab programme idea, questions have been raised as to how much such an initiative will cost the hapless Filipino taxpayer. Already, prisons are bursting at the seams with an overpopulation of Filipino crooks scraped off the streets by the police. The Philippine government does not have the resources to even just house and feed them, much more “rehabilitate” these poor sods.
The lesson? Key to keeping Filipino politicians honest is in ensuring that, at the very least, their words are regarded with a critical mind and not with the gullible sensibilities Philippine corporate news media apply to their business of “informing” their audience on important issues.
[Photo courtesy Japan Times.]
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
the puppeteer is on the final battle. if they succeed in derailing president duterte’s fight for a change for a better Philippines, there’s no one to be blame other than the pilipinos for not rising up for their war on criminality, corruption, and on drugs. like de lima she’s setting up that she’s been framed as the drug queen. people power is the only answer to these or pilipinos go back to the yellow dynasty’s rule of law.
The biggest problem with Filipinos is they don’t give a shit about the bad stuff that is going on in their country, as long as they have their own interests (money, house, car, and private education for their children) intact. Filipinos will talk about the shit in the Philippines, but won’t do shit about it.
Like those asshole Fil-Ams protesting in the US! Shut the fuck up, you left the Philippines, you don’t know anymore what it’s like to live here.
These Fil-Ams living safely and comfortably in the U.S. are brainwashed by The Filipino Channel (ABS-CBN), and Leni Rebredo’s recent Duterte-bashing tour there, on the atrocities of the current administration. These motherfucking Fil-Ams only tie to the Philippines is watching Kris T.V. and Eat Bulaga, and occasional visits to the country to flaunt their dollars and be the source of envy of relatives and friends.
Exactly my impression of these people Aeta!
*shrugs*
This site’s owner doesn’t live in RP either.
Considering all the bad mouthing she did against the administration, im suprised that she is surprised that they booted her out. Goodness
Leni Robredo position as Vice President , is still in question. The fraud in the 2016 election, does not go away.
Imagine, an unknown person by the name of Villanueva, is elected as Senator? Whatever angle, you look at it…it stinks to high heaven.
And the Smartmatic guy, intruducing a unknown software, at the height of the counting, tells, there was a high possibility of election fraud. Aquino and his cahoots, were responsible with this election fraud.
Leni Robredo wants to promote herself to the Media. The budget for Rehabilitation, for such a massive amount of addicts will bankrupt the Philippines. Where will she get the money ?
If she ever have some sense. How will she solve such problem of too many addicts? She has to deal with Drug Lords, also…
She must think, before she talks…she just talk nonsense ! It will be a nightmare, if she ever becomes a President…it will be like Aquino !
Failipinos in the Failippines live in an age of so-called equivocal competency: if Maria Leonor Santo Tomas Gerona (Leni Robredo) wants, she can be a “competent vice president”, a “competent self-promoter”, a “competent media whore”. Just because Leni Robredo can do something well does not mean she should be doing it.
Contentious is Robredo’s middle name, and she majors in intercourse.
I don’t think there has ever been a “Vice-President” in the history of the Philippines—maybe even of the world—who works as hard as Leni Robredo does to try and steal the thunder away from the President.
It is doubly ironic because this is a “Vice-President” who was barely able to manage a 1% “lead” over her nearest rival during the elections, despite the unmatched levels of cheating, spending, manipulation, and mud-slinging that her party resorted to. Yet Robredo parades herself around like she is God’s greatest gift to the Filipino people, trying to compete for attention with the most popular and most trusted President in recent Philippine history. “Langaw na nakapatong sa kalabaw” does not even begin to describe the absurdity of this situation.
I think her latest statement about wanting to build rehabilitation centers is an attempt to ride on Duterte’s war-on-drugs bandwagon. The “Leni the ‘It’ Girl/Socialite” and “Leni the Woman of the Year” PR campaigns have so far flopped, so now Robredo is trying to identify herself with an issue that obviously resonates with the people. It’s amusing how the yellow media played up her rehab statement like it was the most groundbreaking insight ever, as if nobody on this earth had ever thought of building rehab centers before.
As to what rehab centers have to do with the specific job assigned to Robredo at HUDCC, nobody really knows. Rehab centers are not even within her scope, and the DOJ and DOH are already working on these. But to Robredo’s camp, everything is about PR, and she will say and do anything to keep herself in the headlines. Just imagine, if all the Jesse Robredo tributes, ribbon-cutting events, keynote speeches, dinners, product launches, and movie premieres are taken away, there would be nothing left for Robredo to get talked about.
While the other cabinet members gain media mileage because of their work—i.e. DOJ Sec. Aguirre on Bilibid investigation, DENR Sec. Gina Lopez on mining audit, DSWD Sec. Taguiwalo on 4Ps reorganization, DOTr Sec. Tugade on traffic management solutions—Robredo only gets media mileage for her recreational activities. Expect her to ramp up her critical running commentary on Duterte’s policies in the coming days, as her camp starts to realize that the social butterfly routine isn’t taking off.
Let me say this, she wont sit down with Duterte because it’s all only talk and hot air.
It is only meant for the media to trumpet around, but not meant as anything serious or something that has been worked out. Media whore is the right description. No depth, no competency, zero experience.
Duterte ignores her, because she has no right to be the VP. Time will uncover all the election fraud, you just all wait.
Reading Leni’s mind…
PNP foils kill Duterte plot
Leni’s thoughts: “Uy saaayang!!! Heartbeat away lang talaga presidente na ako – konting panahon nalang mga minamahal kong mga dilaw na tupa.”
President ‘Bato’ dela Rosa in 2022?
Leni’s thoughts: “Kakaasar, nakakalamang na tong bwisit na kalbong rock star na ito ah!”
Early-rising traffic-enduring perspiration-drenched Filipino tax payers are shelling out big bucks to maintain this yellow KSP freak of a “VP”-kuno just to have her scratching her head all day thinking up new ways to get media limelight in the name of perpetuating her listing-ship political brand name “robber-redo” that’s struggling to stay afloat in an increasingly meritocracy, output and performance based Du30 world.
Ballistic-missile “articles of war” from GRP and the Manila Times followed by a final torpedo blow through the hull with a BBM-driven election fraud case victory should finish this noisy blabber mouth off.
The best rehab is a bullet on the head. Stupid program
Unrelated topic but observer the behavior. She has become what she disgusts or maybe she’s literally telling us that nobody owns the media but them LPs.
https://youtu.be/2ypQqqQW254?t=46s
I ceasingly pray to the Lord that Leni lugaw wld. never be a Pres. She shd. not either be a vice pres.
She shd. stop acting like one of both. She don’t deserve any position in the govt. Liar, and corrupt and cheater.
As predicted last week (read here http://grpshorts.blogspot.com.au/2016/09/leni-robredo-is-desperate-to-stay.html ), Leni Robredo’s PR team is toning down her socialite positioning and hitching a ride on Duterte’s war on drugs.
While President Duterte is away on his ASEAN trip, Robredo set a briefing with the DILG to discuss the anti-drug campaign (read here http://www.manilatimes.net/robredo-belittles-duterte-drug-war/284301/ ).
According to Robredo:
– “Yes, we have 700,000 surrenderers but that should not be treated as an accomplishment.”
– “We have to make it a point that drug rehabilitation is the way to go. You can tell us five locations where the surrenderers are so we can start working . . . we are looking for ways where our office can plug the holes.”
“Rehabilitation is the way to go,” Robredo said. This novel thought probably never occurred to Duterte’s men, that’s why they allocated almost P3 billion for building rehab centers in the 2017 national budget.
Why is Robredo trying to get involved in rehab centers, when drug rehab has no connection to her role as HUDCC head?
A few weeks ago, a commenter who sounded like a member of Robredo’s camp wrote a revealing statement here on GRP in reaction to a post comparing Robredo’s lack of accomplishment with the achievements of DENR Sec. Gina Lopez: “Unlike DENR, Housing isn’t as controversial or glamorous,” the commenter said in his/her long defense of Robredo. (Scroll down to read comment on this link http://grpshorts.blogspot.com.au/2016/08/outrage-over-leni-robredos-fraudulent.html )
Based on this, we can infer that Robredo’s camp doesn’t think she will get enough media mileage if she simply focuses on her HUDCC assignment, therefore she needs to find something more controversial. And what is the most controversial issue right now? Duterte’s war on drugs.
Identifying herself with the drug war will also make it easier for Robredo to take credit for Duterte’s accomplishments in solving the drug problem if her camp succeeds in unseating him, similar to how Noynoy Aquino took credit for Gloria Arroyo’s accomplishments in the economic sector.
A lawyer friend made this interesting observation recently: if we really think about it, Robredo is the root cause of the political turmoil we are experiencing in the country today.
What motivates the opposition’s relentless campaign to unseat Duterte is the fact that they were able to extra-legally install a proxy in the line of succession. If Robredo’s succession in the event of a vacancy is no longer automatic–such as by amending the pertinent provision in the Constitution through a direct people’s initiative during the rescheduled barangay elections on October 2017–there will be more stability in the country.
The amendment can state that, should there be a vacancy in the presidency, another government official such as the House Speaker will become the caretaker of the government until special elections are held, say, within three months. President and Vice-President should be elected as a joint pair in these new elections, similar to the US, to end the vicious cycle in this country of losing party trying to unseat the winner. Should this special election ever need to be held, Robredo can run if she wants to, and prove whether she has a legitimate mandate or not.
I don’t know how feasible this suggestion is, but if it can be done, it might help restore sanity to this country and put an end to the endless power play, so our government officials can finally focus on their jobs.