The more I listen to current Vice President Leni Robredo speak, the more I am convinced that she is not fit for higher office. Take her recent press conference for instance, held a day after Supreme Court summoned her to answer former Senator Bongbong Marcos’s electoral protest. She told reporters that she is not worried about responding to what she thinks are “baseless” allegations that her win was a result of cheating. She said she is more worried about where she will get the money to pay for a lawyer.
“Hindi naman ako nagwo-worry sa pageexplain ng sarili kasi baseless naman. Mas worried ako sa costs…”
It’s funny how a simple statement from Robredo already shows her inconsistency. Since she claims to be not worried about explaining herself, then she should have no problem responding to the petition herself. As political analyst and De La Salle University Professor Antonio Contreras pointed out on his Facebook post, Robredo is a lawyer and can represent herself. Contreras also advised that it would be easy for her to do her own research as he had done it himself when he filed a case against Senator Grace Poe:
Wala daw pera si Mrs. Robredo na pambayad ng abugado niya para dumipensa sa kanya sa PET.Aba. The last time I checked lawyer siya di ba. Bakit hindi na lang siya ang magsilbing own counsel niya.Ako nga. Hindi abugado. Pero dahil wala akong pera subalit gusto kong idepensa ang saligang batas, ako mismo ang nag-research, nagsulat at tumayo para sa kasong isinampa ko sa COMELEC laban kay Senadora Grace Poe na nakarating pa sa Korte Suprema.Kung ako na hindi abugado kinaya ko. E siya pa na abugado at nakataya ang kanyang pag-upo sa posisyon niya ngayon.
Leni Robredo: Why is she addressing the media rather than responding directly to the Electoral Tribunal?
One can be forgiven for thinking Robredo was trying to appeal to the public’s emotions when she mentioned she doesn’t know where she will get the funds to pay for a lawyer. Some people have noted that she was wearing her yellow “Cory” dress during the press conference. She came across as someone soliciting funds to pay for a lawyer to represent her against Marcos’s electoral protest. Her critics find it ironic that she is worried about funds now considering she blew 400 million pesos during the campaign. Her lack of foresight is evident once again. She didn’t realise that running for a coveted post like the vice presidency has its risks. She should never have allowed herself to be bullied by her Liberal Party mates into running to begin with.
It seems the Liberal Party has abandoned Robredo. It’s actually disappointing to think that the men from her own party left her to fend for herself. Those who forced her to run for VP, Mar Roxas and BS Aquino, are now enjoying their lives, away from political bickering as private citizens. That’s proof that the Liberal Party was not running on principles all along. After Mar’s defeat, the party disintegrated leaving Robredo alone to answer the cheating allegations.
It is very convenient for Roxas and BS Aquino to hide from the fiasco. They probably want to stay as far away from any cheating allegations as they can lest they be compelled to answer the protest charge. After all, the whistle-blowers alleged that votes were also shaved from other candidates and were given to Roxas. Meaning, Roxas may have benefited from the electoral fraud as well.
It’s not surprising that Roxas is now missing from the picture. Some of us already predicted that he was just using Robredo’s popularity to pull his flagging popularity up. Unfortunately for Roxas, it did not work. The two running mates may have appeared united during their campaign sorties but the truth is, they were just forced to run together by bizarre circumstances. It was like a marriage of convenience for them. Since they did not have anything in common, it was easy to part ways after the elections.
Another thing that the people found outrageous about Robredo’s statement during her press conference is her belief that Marcos Jr’s electoral protest is baseless. According to a news report, the former senator’s petition “includes 20,000 pages of annexes consisting of affidavits and other files. The main petition comprises 1,000 pages.” It would be impossible for Robredo to have read or even just peruse all those pages in such a short time. Therefore, it is her statement saying the electoral protest is baseless that is baseless.
As usual, Robredo is not making any sense. Prior to Marcos Jr’s filing with the Philippine Electoral Tribunal (PET), she kept implying that he was just making things up and using mind conditioning to make the public believe she cheated. But now that Marcos Jr has formalised his complaint and is following procedure, Robredo is still quick to dismiss it as baseless. She should just comply and respond to the petition if she’s not guilty.
A lot of people have observed that Robredo can be irrational at times. It is really scary to think that she is just a heartbeat away from the Presidency. It’s hard to imagine her taking over the helm if something bad happens to President Rodrigo Duterte. She herself said so many times that she doesn’t want to be President. That can only mean she wouldn’t know what to do if she is forced to be in a situation she doesn’t want to be in. Someone who is reluctant to be Vice President and President is someone who does not have a vision for the country. Not only will the Philippines have for a president a puppet who answers to the oligarchy, we’ll have a president who won’t get the respect of the members of the police and military.
Why am I worried that Robredo could take over the Presidency? Because a lot of Liberal Party supporters still can’t accept that the voters chose Duterte and could be cooking up another people power revolt. One thing the incumbent President and his supporters should avoid is be tempted to underestimate the Opposition. They have a lot of money and resources to mount a campaign against anyone they don’t like and it will take a while for an outsider like Duterte to warm up to them.
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