While Leni Robredo is “waiting for something to happen to the president”, she spends her time in numerous PR activities. Nothing new there, but today I saw a couple of pictures that bothered me.
Here is Photo 1, taken Aug 24, 2016 at the Jesse Robredo exhibit that was mounted in Gateway mall, a property owned by the family of Mar Roxas.
Here is Photo 2, taken Aug 29, 2016 at the launch of a Jesse Robredo book in Fully Booked BGC.
What do you notice about these two photos?
The design of the visuals is very reminiscent of the imagery associated with Philippine presidents.
Photo 1 shows a classic “trooping of the guard” image. Photo 2 shows a book cover with a head bust that has a Philippine flag prominently displayed in the background.
Does the late Jesse Robredo, as respected as he was, warrant this level of presidential imagery? Most of his political career was spent in Naga City. He occupied a national position for only about 3 years, as DILG secretary. But the way these visuals were selected and designed, you would think Jesse Robredo was a former president.
What message is Leni Robredo subliminally sending with this imagery?
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.
Robredo is capitalizing so much on the memory of her late husband, but there are also rumors that she is in a relationship with QC congressman Bolet Banal that is carefully kept out of the media spotlight. (There are photos of them floating around on Facebook.)
Assuming the rumors are true, it would be understandable why Robredo would want to keep the relationship under wraps—how would it look if the rumored affair becomes full public knowledge, and Robredo still keeps talking about her late husband in her speeches and using his image in her brand-building activities?
(A quick web search shows that Bolet Banal was the person identified by the PS Bank manager in the Corona impeachment trial as the one who approached her regarding Chief Justice Corona’s bank records. At that time, the prosecution team against Corona was claiming his bank records were left on a gate by an anonymous “little lady”. They had to attribute the documents to an anonymous source because obtaining bank records without client permission is a violation of the Bank Secrecy Law.)
Whether or not the rumors about Banal and Robredo are true, Robredo’s non-stop self-promotion activities are the reason why it is impossible to believe there is no Plan B. Robredo’s camp would not be spending this much time building up her brand if they were not up to something.
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