Who’s afraid of Leni Robredo?

L ess than a week after my last column predicting the pre s ide n t - elect would find more ways to offend the Filipino people, there he was again, among other offensive remarks, explaining in terse and hostile terms why he has no plan to give a job in his government to the vicepresident-elect, Leni Robredo.

In his response to the question from the media, he asserted testily that he is under no obligation to give her a job, that there is no law that requires him to do it. Besides, Leni is a Liberal, she belongs to the opposition, and remember that he lost in Bicol, her bailiwick. Besides, he also said, he has to worry about giving jobs to his many friends, classmates, province mates and whatnot to whom he owes a debt of gratitude — utang na loob.

And finally, the coup de grace, he said he doesn’t want to hurt the feelings of Bongbong Marcos, who lost to Leni by over 250,000 votes. This, from a man who just a week before, declared that his loyalty to his friends ends where his loyalty to his country begins.

That is his long answer, in which he showed himself to be small, spiteful, vindictive, insular — and totally subservient to the dictator’s family. Didn’t he say during the campaign he’d give the presidency to Bongbong if he failed to fulfill his campaign promises in six months? And despite strong public opposition, he insists on burying the cadaver of Marcos Sr. at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in spite of the latter’s record as a fake war hero, dictator and plunderer.

But the short, unspoken answer is, Duterte seems to be afraid of Leni Robredo. And well he should be, not because she is evil, cunning or ambitious, but because Leni is such a good person and an attractive personality — smart, sober, reliable, very likeable, and quite presidential — she makes him look drab, vulgar and scary, like the big, bad wolf, out to ravage Little Red Riding Hood.

Leni is the second fearless widow to defeat a Marcos in a span of 30 years. In 1986, another courageous widow, Cory Aquino, defeated the dictator, Marcos Sr. in the snap elections, and, propelled by people power, drove him and his family out of the country. Leni’s victory over Bongbong was not quite as dramatic and earthshaking, but just as important. She campaigned hard, visited almost 90 percent of all provinces in the country, attended every debate where she performed brilliantly, and succeeded in denying Bongbong access to the second highest post in government.

Such is the power of Leni Robredo. From a virtual unknown, she fought valiantly, doggedly, to be number one. And the public who got to know her simply fell in love with her. In the last weeks before the election, she zoomed past Marcos with a seven percent leap in the surveys, and come election day, she demolished his dream of his family’s comeback. She put a halt to the plan of Marcos Jr., and it turns out, of Duterte himself, for Bongbong to eventually take over the office that his father so blatantly defiled.

Elegant and dignified, the Bicolana congresswoman is the exact opposite of the coarse and abrasive mayor from Davao. She is humble and soft-spoken; he is loud and offensive. She is thoughtful, her speech measured, her ideas well- thought- out, rational; he talks trash through his hat and both sides of his mouth, and most of the time, someone has to interpret to an offended public what he “really” meant to say. He excuses his uncouth behavior saying he is a probinsyano, insulting all rural folk in the process. Leni, too, is a probinsyana, born and bred, but she exudes grace and breeding.

Indeed, they are an unlikely pair to lead the country. Given a choice of who would bring gravitas to the presidency, who would respect the democracy, human rights and freedoms we have fought so hard for, who would represent the Philippines with dignity, elegance and pride in the international scene, I believe most people would opt for the stability and reliability of the vicepresident-elect.

A Leni Robredo victory wasn’t part of Duterte’s plan, but a Marcos win was. In fact, he tried to trivialize Leni’s candidacy by commenting on her beauty while licking his lips lasciviously. He didn’t count on having to deal with Leni’s squeaky- clean reputation, her no- nonsense leadership, her obvious virtues, her universal appeal.

Someone on Facebook remarked that Leni has a “glow-in-the-dark” quality about her that makes her a beacon amid the murky universe of the presidentelect’s traditional politics. She may be out of his official family, but Leni’s light will lead us out of the gloom as it hounds him and blinds him in these dark Duterte years.

Who’s afraid of Leni Robredo? Rodrigo Duterte should be very afraid.