EVICTING LENI ROBREDO
She wouldn’t work to oust Duterte; he assured she would serve her full term
“I will assure Leni and the rest of the Bicol region that you will have her until the very end of her term.” -- Duterte, Dec. 8, 2016
HOW DONE: A text message telling her she was barred from the Cabinet meeting of Dec. 5. After receiving the message and before the meeting, she announced she was going to resign -- and she did.
REASONS GIVEN, IMPLIED, SPECULATED ON. Official reason: President Duterte was no longer comfortable with her views that clashed with the president’s policies: “irreconcilable differences,” he said.
Implied: He wouldn’t want an oppositionist in the Cabinet, a voice that disagreed with his. Robredo might learn secrets he wouldn’t share with those who are against him.
Speculated on: He’s paving the way for the assumption of Bongbong Marcos, stirring fears the VP might be stripped of her seat through illicit or illegal means or a Supreme Court that tends to favor “the elite and the ruling class,” as shown in its string of decisions on landmark cases during the past two decades. President Duterte last Dec. 8 assured Bicolanos, reacting to her publicized fear of the vice presidency being stolen from her, that wouldn’t happen.
WHAT’S AHEAD FOR HER. She could work on her programs but with budget limited to the meager allocation for her office and whatever she could scrape from the private sector. That wouldn’t include plotting to oust Duterte, she said, “he will finish his term,” promising to oppose only policies and programs that would hurt the country and its institutions. The upside: she could lead the opposition and express its balancing view on president’s decisions that flirt with the illegal and unconstitutional, this time without the reservation of a Cabinet member. Or she could be just a spare tire, limited to being stored or hung, waiting for the chance to replace the president. Unlike Jojo Binay who patiently waited for the run-up to the 2016 elections to fire at his president and then quit, Robredo starting giving Duterte a piece of her mind, from extrajudicial killings, the Marcos burial, to his ogling at her knees and legs during Cabinet meetings. The latter must have counted a lot in Duterte’s ban on Leni. No Lothario can be more vengeful than a rejected Lothario. At least the political lines are drawn. Duterte’s on one side and Robredo’s on the other.