Leni and Rody

She’s the Vice President of all Filipinos and not just the Liberal Party. And being the constitutional successor, the Vice President cannot lead any self-serving calls for the ouster or resignation of the President of the Republic.

So how does Leonora Robredo balance this with her role as leader of the opposition?

With much difficulty, as VP Leni Robredo herself admits.

Facing us on “The Chiefs” this week on Cignal TV’s One News channel, the Veep recalled with a wry grin how those who egged her on to seek the nation’s second highest post had told her that the job of spare tire to the president would be much easier than her work as congresswoman representing Camarines Sur.

So has it turned out to be true? It would be easy, she admitted to us, if the President is not Rodrigo Duterte.

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For the reasons cited above, the Veep is reluctant to take direct swipes at President Duterte, even if, as opposition leader, there are valid reasons for her to do so.

It also hasn’t escaped her attention that her ratings always fall whenever she directly takes on Duterte, whose popularity midway through his term remains impressively high although the numbers are on a consistent downward trend. 

Filipinos, she told us, want the two top officials of the land to work together.

Both she and Duterte gave it a try. The rapprochement was coming along so well that people even began teasing them romantically, helped along by Duterte’s politically incorrect jokes. Robredo recalls this period with amusement, noting that it would not have happened if she’s not a widow.

The teasing didn’t last long. When she was the housing chief with Cabinet rank, Robredo had openly criticized the brutal methods in fighting the illegal drug trade. She recalled that during a Cabinet meeting, she had mentioned her criticism to the President and he had told her it was OK. The Veep was pleased and thought Duterte didn’t mind if she voiced her critical opinions on other issues related to his policies.

She thought wrong; after that brief rapprochement with the President, she was disinvited to Cabinet meetings. Eventually she dropped the housing portfolio. These days, Robredo notes, she’s not even invited to meetings of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council where by law (Republic Act 7640), the VP is a member.

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Today their relationship (she asked: was there ever one?) has so deteriorated that Duterte is accusing the LP, which she heads as the party member with the highest position in government, of plotting to oust him by October, through a series of mass actions that are supposed to start today, the 46th anniversary of the declaration of martial law by his idol Ferdinand Marcos.

The LP, Duterte has claimed, is conspiring with the communists and the Magdalo group of former rebel soldiers led by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV in the ouster plot.

From the Senate, Trillanes also faced us two weeks ago together with Communist Party of the Philippines founding chairman Jose Maria Sison in the Netherlands and LP vice president for external affairs Erin Tañada.

Trillanes reiterated what he had said about the ouster plot as soon as Duterte had hurled the accusation: it was a figment of the imagination of an “insecure” President.

Tañada gave a similar categorical denial, stressing that the LP is now busy preparing for the midterm elections in May 2019, with the filing of certificates of candidacy set next month.

Joma Sison also denied any conspiracy with the Magdalo and LP, although he stressed that communists are waging a rebellion so the aim is to replace the government. So yes, Sison said, they want Duterte ousted.

Whether this is possible is as uncertain as Duterte’s assessment that the communist rebellion would be defeated by mid-2019. The communist New People’s Army continues to launch armed attacks. Trillanes and his fellow Magdalo, former party-list congressman Ashley Acedillo, told us that this was why their group could not possibly be in bed with the enemy – the NPA rebels who continue to kill government forces. Sison also pointed out that government forces continue their offensives against the communists.

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Robredo herself categorically denied to us that she was involved in any plot to oust the President.

“Filipinos are not keen on supporting another uprising,” Robredo told us. “It will not be good for the country if we will go through another political upheaval the likes of EDSA. I feel we have gone through so much already.”

On the other hand, does she suspect that Duterte is behind efforts to unseat her by ensuring the victory of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. in his electoral protest against her? That would be an unfair accusation on her part, she told The Chiefs.

She also maintains her faith in the capability of the Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, to render a fair decision on Marcos’ protest, and to make a legal rather than political decision. The VP, after all, is also supposed to lead the nation in showing respect for the country’s institutions.

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As leader of the nation rather than merely of the LP, she may never be able to meet the expectations of certain quarters for a more vocal opposition leader.

To neutral observers, this void is being filled by Trillanes. Thanks to Duterte’s obsessive effort to shut him up, Trillanes has become an opposition star. Robredo and LP members, however, stress that Trillanes is not the new opposition leader, although the Liberals and Magdalo are coalescing for the 2019 elections.

I asked the VP if she thought the political turbulence combined with the country’s current economic woes – record-high inflation, record-low peso and shortage of subsidized rice – are strengthening the opposition.

She said she didn’t want the opposition to gain strength from problems that beset all Filipinos. Political differences, she said, must be set aside for a united response to common economic problems. Her final message to our viewers in fact was a call for unity in addressing these urgent problems.

It would be good for administration officials to do the same.