Colossal blunder
President Rodrigo Duterte describes Vice President Leni Robredo as a colossal blunder. I take it he meant her entire person. I would not go so far as to accept that on his terms. Leni is a good and decent woman. But that, too, is as far as I would go with her. To me, her colossal blunder was when she accepted her party's nomination for vice president.
Every person is the best judge of his or her own self. As an educated woman, Leni must have known that nothing happened in her life to prepare her for the presidency, which is what the vice presidency is really all about. Before 2016, she had been Ma. Leonor Gerona, lawyer, mother, mayor's wife, widow and, finally, reluctant congresswoman.
She should have exercised the same reluctance and restraint when presented with what she must have been told was a sure run for the vice presidency. The vice presidency is a breath away from the presidency. It is not in the same league as district representation. The spare tire characterization is a trap for fools. Any educated person knows anybody running for the vice presidency is virtually running for the presidency.
And being the best judge of her own self, Leni should have known deep in her good and decent self that she is not prepared for the presidency. As an educated person she should have looked beyond the vice presidency/spare tire frame of mind and considered the possibility that if she won the vice presidency and the president just keeled over one day, she would effectively become the president --to the great misfortune of Filipinos.
Any God-fearing, country-loving, people-caring person would not want to be thrust into a leadership position without having prepared for it. It is a responsibility so awesome and tremendous you would not entrust it to chance. A lawyer, mother, wife, or congresswoman has far more leadership options over a far smaller scope of influence. A president is virtually alone with his or her guts and wits.
Unfortunately for her and for us, Leni did not see that she was just being used by her party. Her party simply needed a winnable candidate. Politics was all there was in the decision to draft her. The swiftness with which it was decided betrayed the shameful lack of any regard for the consequences. No thought was given at all to the possibility of Leni getting thrust into a crisis situation with a nation of 100 million hanging by her competence.
Having made the colossal blunder of running for the vice presidency, a blunder underscored by her near-repudiation at the polls, winning over a Marcos by nothing more than just the skin of her teeth, Leni compounded the problem by taking her politics into office. Leni should have left partisan politics at the gate and spent her time learning how to be president. If on-the-job training it must be, she should have learned from who was in charge.
The vice presidency is not defined by partisanship, Leni would not have been remiss in anything if she just chose to work, and to keep quiet if she cannot cooperate. But no, Leni had to keep making noise, never mind if the constancy of the noise ate up what credibility she had and reduced her ultimately into irrelevance. What a colossal blunder she made of her choices. What a big fat egg she laid.
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