Philippine “vice president” seems to have learnt nothing from what is an ever-lengthening history of botched PR jobs surrounding her personal brand. The recent debacle she finds herself in — being seen to be a self-promoting, camera-hogging, commander-in-chief wannabe during and after this year’s wave of typhoons — is the outcome of yet another dishonest media campaign mounted by her halfwit handlers.
This campaign — amplified and cheered on by her legions of rabid social media “influencers” — contained the usual peppering of “candid” photos and one-line sound bytes as Robredo engaged in various “relief” activities. What was particularly disturbing, however, was how Robredo presumed to “coordinate” the activities of the Philippine military and Coast Guard — as if she were part of the chain of command or, worse, the Commander-in-Chief herself. The crooked strategy of this media campaign was to exploit the perception that Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was nowhere to be found in those times of crises and, as such, a perfect opportunity for the “vice president” to step up and fill that media-manufactured leadership “void”. In so doing, Robredo (and her mob) fancied herself as the only government official who was “doing something” and, even more bizarre, the only one who knew what she was doing.
The PR strategy reads almost like the plot of the 1988 film Die Hard where lead character John McClane (played by Bruce Willis) went about single-handedly saving the day, evidently smarter and savvier than all the police, FBI, and CIA combined. It would have worked in a time when Filipinos still got all their news, information, and entertainment from mainstream media channels. With a Philippine mainstream news media industry biased towards the agendas of the Yellowtards (the partisan bloc rabidly loyal to the Aquino-Cojuangco feudal clan), this whole Leni Robredo Show would have all been lapped up by an utterly-misinformed public. Unfortunately for the Yellowtards, Filipinos now know better than to trust these crooked organisations. Indeed, there is even a conflict-of-interest at work here seeing how both former and current employees and contracted “talent” of discredited media business ABS-CBN were attempting to correlate the loss of their employer’s broadcasting franchise to the plight of the disaster victims.
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Meanwhile, largely unseen, uncelebrated, and beavering away with little fanfare in the background were the various state agencies that oversee the bigger picture as far as the practice of disaster preparedness and disaster response is concerned. The job of a chief executive is to ensure that these agencies work together not just during but before and after disaster strikes. The job of an executive is in the leading and managing and not in the doing.
If Robredo aspires to be chief executive, she should exhibit a similar confidence in being able to work outside of the limelight and focus on getting real macro results quietly. What Robredo exhibits instead is a penchant for the renowned tingi (piecemeal) approach old-school Filipinos apply to dealing with challenges of national consequence. The irony that flies over Robredo’s pointed head is in how, for such small “achievements”, she and her girls blow such loud trumpets. Filipinos deserve something better than this shrill “opposition”. They deserve a more intelligent one focused on quiet achievement.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
Gusto lang tumulong ng isang tao tapos puro kayo paninira. Ano ba kayo? Imbis na magsiraan tayo, bakit hindi natin puriin ang mga kababayan na tulad ni Leni na gusto lang ibigay ang kanilang sarili para sa kabutihan ng ating lipunan.
Para kayong mga talangka! Walang kayong ginawa kundi hilahin pababa ang lahat ng Pilipino na gustong umunlad ang ating bansa. Mahiya nga kayo! Kung wala kayong masasabing maganda, tumahimik na lang kayo!
Don’t be blinded with her real intentions in the relief effort. Her main objective is not to help but to politicize the situation for political gain. Never fall into the trap in a sugar coated photo ops and media propaganda.
If anyone should shut up, it’s people like you. All you want is a politician, not a true leader.
Wanderer,
Hindi ko naiintidihan ang sinabi mo. Tagalugin mo ako! Hindi ka tuloy papasa sa 4-D. Balik 3-D ka tol, pasensiya na, facts lang.
More like opinion, not facts.
Of course, you wouldn’t understand because you want to ignore him. Just that.
Talagang hindi mo maaintindihan dahil AYAW mong maintindihan. BTW, you should follow your own advice. Pasensya na, opinyon mo lang iyan at hindi facts.
Set your priorities for once if you don’t want to embarrass yourself, son. Because you just went FULL RETARD with what you wrote.
I am not embarrass because you are the one embarrass. You cannot spoke in our language because you are not loving our culture. I will proud of our country because I loving our culture and peoples. Your hating is only show peoples your truest color and peoples knowing now their truest enemy. Enjoy your blunder!
Everything you’ve said is a total blunder due to the fact that you’re defending our dysfunctional culture and society. You just exposed your own backward thinking.
The media could have fact checked where the president was and his activities but instead chose highlight Leni’s adventure while the president was multitasking. And now Leni is on defensive mode, as usual.
Leni Robredo is just being Leni Robredo. She’s helping people who are victims of fortuitous events such as typhoon in everything she could ever since she was not in politics yet, to being congresswoman and now being the vice president. Your statement of PR stunt Benigno is highly ignorant of the fact of her history, and so you misjudge her easily. If there’s media, that’s because she’s vice president. That’s her strategy. If that will click to the Filipino people, and she runs for presidency in 2022, then Duterte’s possible annointed one in 2022 presidential election will find a hard time defeating her.
Meanwhile, Robredo will likely stay as vice president and your eager to become vice president Bongbong Marcos would lose even after counting the votes which Leni Robredo won for the second time especially now the Supreme Court junked Marcos and Solicitor General’s plea to make Justice Leonen inhibit from PET. That’s really a tough one. If Bongbong Marcos thinks of running for presidency, her mother Imelda’s conviction of graft by the Sandiganbayan and possibly by the Supreme Court in the future will hunt and drag him down in his presidential campaign. Tough, tough luck.
That reminds me: during back in 2013 during Yolanda, a survivor queued for relief goods during Noynoy visit. Distribution of relief goods was stopped because the photo op was over and she never got her pack. To them,
If she really wants to help people, there should be no media around. That’s why it’s a PR stint because media should be present.
But what do I expect from someone who harbor such deep and personal hatred for tainted surnames?
When one is famous and occupies the highest or one of highest position in government, there is always camera around specially in public, and photo shoots become normal. This is a trend in democratic countries all around the world, if you don’t know that. This scenario is not exclusive to the Philippines only.
President Duterte, when he was still a mayor, got even more famous and got benefited from both mass media and social media posts to his presidential campaign when he was one of the first responders in Tacloban who gave donations and dole outs to the victims when typhoon Yolanda struck. You think it was also a PR stunt? Again, in case of Robredo, she was used to helping people already long before she entered politics. That’s her character.
She’s obviously the darling of the media. Just read the comments of journalists. There’s something unsettling about media men and women lacking critical eyes esp. when they deal with politics.
Lugaw Robredo is trying to outdo Pres. Duterte in his presidential duties….remember, this woman, cheated in the 2016 Vice Presidential election; and she is still “bobo and tanga”…
With a bunch of photographers, and media publicists, in tow…her moves are all recorded, for photo opportunities and publicity purposes….If you are as stupid as you are, to “bite and swallow” , her political tactics, to be accepted as a relevant Vice President. Then, it is you own damn fault. You are a hopeless stupid human being.
The Aquino Cojuangco political axis; the oligarchs and the commies, are trying to build up their “Puppet”, in the form of Lugaw Robredo.
I cannot find any truthfulness in any bone of this idiotic woman…all I find are: pretense , falsehood and stupidity for her PR purposes !
Well, news reports are now coming out and even the administration is acknowledging that they were fed false intel/information about “Leni trying to take charge/control of the military” or that “Leni used a C130 for her relief effort”.
My question is this, who fed the admin/president the info? And why?
It appears Leni Robredo has actually learned more to be a national executive with her limited scope as it was acknowledged by the admin themselves that she didn’t try to push herself into the chain of command (wrong intel).
But it still stands, who fed the information then? And why?
I have a conspiracy theory but there is no point in that because there are little to no facts that can support it.
There is more to lose with our government not working together and continously tried to be divided even now in crisis. So with the group/persons still working to sow that divisive nature with the misinformation campaign, SHAME ON THEM! They haven’t learned a thing except continue with self interests.
Mrs. Lolbredo could have cleared herself with the president through whatever means. If there was no malice on their part, her people shouldv’e known better before posting innuendos that cause confusion. If she thinks something’s wrong then she has to be specific so that she’s not misinterpreted.
For those who lack the brains or charisma, public visibility appears to be the only option left for gaining the much needed votes in the upcoming elections.
The prognosis appears hyper-bleak for the Yellowtards though… Just in at Philstar: Duterte warns Robredo of 2022 nightmare.