No, Roxas is not a Robredo

MAR Roxas knew better. When he accepted his appointment as interior & local government secretary, he didn’t imply he was a (Jesse) Robredo. Instead, he flatly said he was “no Robredo.”

(Jun Abaya, who was named transportation & communication secretary, took Mar’s cue and said, “And I am no Roxas.”)

Since DILG chief Robredo died in the Aug. 18 plane crash, there has been popular clamor to fill the DILG post with “someone like Robredo.”

Whatever Jesse’s real worth, stripped of the mystique brought by early death in line of duty, Roxas couldn’t come close to being a Robredo unless, heavens forbid, Mar would die too, as Jesse did, in a plunge of glory that would deserve a state funeral.

Roxas was cautious: he used the Robredo yardstick and displayed humility.

By denying he was no Robredo, no one could squelch Roxas as Democrats’ Lloyd Bentsen did to GOP’s Dan Quayle in the 1988 vice presidential debate. When Quayle compared his stint as senator to that of John F. Kennedy, whose high stature as US president was clinched after he was murdered in 1963, Bentsen erupted, “You’re no JFK, senator!”

Part of ritual

Roxas’s denial avoided a deflated ego and being target of insult.

The stance of a successor is to praise the predecessor. Such plaudits as “he’s a tough act to follow” or “no one can fill his shoes or ‘tsinelas’” fill the air at turnover.

Part of the ritual in transferring power: one humbles himself and lavishes praise on the official going out or gone. Arrogance would invite a rap on the head or a kick elsewhere.