The Cult of Leni Robredo: Are its members RABID enough to deliver a win for her?

Here goes Manuel L. Quezon III again with his metaphors. In his Inquirer piece today “The voodoo rebellion”, he makes it appear that the Duterte-Marcos alliance is a cult.

In recent weeks, Lakas-CMD, and then PDP-Laban, seem to have lost faith in this Second Coming. But the faithful stand firm. A stampita of the faithful consists of an infographic circulating online: the “Sara All Philippines 2022 Caravan” is supposed to kick off tomorrow in Cotobato City, arriving in Manila on Nov. 13, and culminating on the 15th, “The Big Day.” It has all the characteristics of folk religion, and I find it striking that all the fervor is being matched by the fervor in another cultic camp, that of the Marcoses. Except in their case, the Marcos creed can be best described as a hybrid of data science and cargo cult.

Think again, Manolo. It is actually the Yellow camp — spray-painted in pink today — which is the real cult. Just look at the vocabulary this mob has spawned; Kakampinks and all that comes with it. Then you have Leni Robredo taking the role of the goddess who preaches the Pink catechism to the faithful. Have you seen her video about her upcoming announcement about her “solution” to the pandemic? Pandemic mind you. This, even if she’s not a member of any task force under the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) as her office has been functioning independent of the Republic since she assumed office but still dependent on public funds.

The administration is disorganized because the power blocs supporting the President are all jockeying for position. It can’t be said that the Opposition is “solid” either. Even with the unconditional support of leftist-militant groups, Robredo still doesn’t stand a chance of winning the Presidency. Why? Ask the average Pinoy if he’s decided on who to vote for and chances are he won’t give a firm answer. Ask kung sino ang napipisil niya and that’s the only time he will give you a list of his choices. Robredo’s support comes mostly from the “ABC” demographic but that’s not enough to win it and Andy Bautista isn’t around to do his magic for her. There’s also the matter of the increasing percentage of undecideds. 8.6% for the Presidential race and 16.9% for the VP race. These are high and may still increase.

The truth is the greater majority of Pinoys will make their decision after the debates. This is when the real race begins. It will come down to a race between Ping Lacson and Bongbong Marcos (BBM). Even if either of the two Dutertes run as BBMs VP, it won’t be a coronation in May. Why? If as early as now, a petition for disqualification has been filed against BBM, I wouldn’t put it past any of the other candidates to be asked to withdraw by their backers and consolidate behind Sen. Lacson. The goal is to prevent a Marcos Presidency at all cost. A lot can still happen between now and May 2022. It’s not over until the winner is proclaimed.

Ramon Ortoll

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