What are the Opposition THINKING pitting Leni Robredo against Sara Duterte?? That’s electoral SUICIDE!

Time and again we observe how the foremost “thought leaders” of the Opposition not only hold shallow qualifications for leadership, they make use of dysfunctional thinking to prop up dishonest theses. In her piece today, “Leni vs Sara: Why Robredo is the better choice”, Mareng Winnie Monsod is selling Leni Robredo as being the better choice over Daughterte. But before she gets to even the shallow criteria she applies to her argument, she plays the Woman Card writing how women “are getting to be more and more the attractive choice as we approach the elections next year”. Not having yet grasped the fallacy in her dishonest claim to a cause-and-effect relationship between a leader’s gender and a nation’s coping with the pandemic, she now “suggests that 1) women don’t become dictators (one among 70); and 2) the only exception was, compared to male dictatorships (think only of Marcos), a rather short, almost benevolent one.”

After devoting almost the first half of her column to that messed up logic, Mareng Winnie then crows…

So that’s another argument for women-led governments.

And then, Monsod gets to the main brainwave of her piece; that “Leni will come into the presidency with clean hands and a clean heart. No political baggage: She is a widow, her children have no political ambitions, so the corruption potential is minimized.” All things being equal, Inday Sara “Daughterte” and Leni Robredo being women (thus making a piece and a half of her recent work irrelevant), Monsod just has to squeeze in this pained appeal to you, “Reader”.

Wow.

If you were to pick, who will you choose? Sara has been leading all surveys since last year. Robredo hasn’t even broken double-digits despite her being in the news cycle 24/7 for the past five years. The “defeated” Vice-Presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, as BBM is described by media loyal to the opposition, scores higher than her. It’s a fact they don’t mention because how can a “defeated” candidate score higher than his opponent who “won” the race?

Between the two, I would rather vote for Sara, not because she is the daughter but based on what I see are her pluses. She does not have any of the liberal credentials that Monsod enumerated but she has proven herself capable of being her own person outside of her father’s shadow. She has a strong character and is very articulate in her statements as opposed to Robredo who always sounds like a ditzy colegiala.

Imagine how Daughterte is leading the Presidential race when she hardly has been visible since her father became President. She has largely kept to the confines of her Davao comfort zone. You don’t see her traveling with a media entourage unlike Robredo who always has a cameraman in tow. The only time Sara had extended visibility was during the 2019 election campaign. She lay low again right after.

Robredo has, in fact, shrinked away from any more encounters with Daughterte after she was given a dose of the infamous Duterte sarcasm when the VP made a comment about the high number of Covid cases in Davao City. The verbal shellacking Robredo got effectively put a sock in her mouth and she has not gone after Sara after that incident.

Both actually don’t have the experience when it comes to the other key aspects of being President such as foreign affairs and the economy. Despite Leni being an Economics graduate of UP, she hasn’t made any sensible statements about what she plans to do for economic recovery should she become President. Yesterday, she was again hoping to become the pandemic czar with blanket authority. For whatever it’s worth, Robredo is better off having a blanket over her head.

In a one-on-one race, Daughterte will easily beat Robredo, even with one hand tied behind her back. If this were a horse race, Duterte is the thoroughbred. Robredo is the mare with weak bloodlines.

Ramon Ortoll

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