Sun.Star Pampanga

Duterte on Robredo

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I HAVE been critical of the policies and moves of President Rodrigo Duterte but this time around I like the way he is handling the case of Vice President Leni Robredo. I initially thought that with the way his allies like House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez are acting, preparing to throw everything including the kitchen sink at the VP, the plan is to make her another Leila de Lima.

That move would be in keeping with the goal of gaining total political control. The Duterte camp always felt uneasy with Robredo, who is with the opposition Liberal Party (LP), as the VP. That uneasiness apparently intensifie­d when Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano filed am impeachmen­t case against the President. Any move to oust Duterte, whether the VP has a part in it or not, would benefit her.

Alvarez must have looked around him and realized that an oust-Leni move can be successful. He already tasted success when he forced the members of the House super-majority to support his bill seeking the reimpositi­on of the death penalty. He can do that again to force the same House super-majority to vote for the VP’s impeachmen­t— especially if he has the President’s imprimatur.

I also think the Senate seating as an impeachmen­t court would eventually oust Robredo considerin­g the number of Duterte supporters there and the lack of scruples of some of them. Consider that even Senate President Aquilino Pimentel had started hitting Robredo and the LP, virtually linking them to the Alejano impeachmen­t case.

What happens if Robredo is ousted. Here’s Section 9 of the 1987 Constituti­on:

“Whenever there is a vacancy in the Office of the Vice-President during the term for which he was elected, the President shall nominate a Vice-President from among the Members of the Senate and the House of Representa­tives who shall assume office upon confirmati­on by a majority vote of all the Members of both Houses of the Congress, voting separately.”

In this sense, the possibilit­y of either Pimentel or Alvarez becoming VP is high.

Of course, the process would be long and divisive, that is why I was pleasantly surprised when, after linking Robredo to the impeach Duterte move, the President told those behind the impeach Robredo move to “stop it,” noting that the elections have just been held and that Robredo is an elected official (she garnered more than 14 million votes in the polls).

Not content with that statement the President, during the graduation ceremony of the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) where he and the VP was guest, also invited Robredo and her children to a dinner with his family. That’s an interestin­g twist that could be interprete­d a number of w ay s.

Here, the VP can go hardline or be pragmatic. The hardline stance was enunciated by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, who warned that the dinner is a “trap” meant to “disarm her and politicall­y neutralize her.” The pragmatic stance is her accepting the invitation to clear any misunderst­anding blanketing their official ties and to neutralize those who are raring to defy Duterte’s diktat on the impeach Robredo move.

Whatever Robredo’s response would be, I would say that the President showed a rare act of diplomacy on this one.

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