“Since regaining our democracy from the dark dictatorship decades, out of six presidencies, only once did we have a vice presidency with an incredibly competent official qualified to sit as president.

In recent history under different administrations and crossing political aisles the allusions to spare tires, snakes and greater evils have characterized our vice presidencies from Corazon Aquino’s Salvador Laurel, Fidel Ramos’ Joseph Estrada, Estrada’s Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, through to Arroyo’s Manuel de Castro, and now, Rodrigo R. Duterte’s Leonor Robredo.

The current tandem, or perhaps non-tandem for most, is not merely an update of a continuing aberrant affliction, but by some standards, the relationship between President Duterte and the current vice president exemplifies the worst foisted on us, causing not only political instability but poses the constant insidious threat of deadly sedition.

See where the intelligence community has already implicated Robredo on sedition charges that involve an operative first recruited by the opposition. Also, read through the transcripts of statements aired in front of foreign audiences unfamiliar with the truth behind the government’s advocacies.

Admittedly there were exceptions to what seems to be an ongoing curse due mostly to our propensity for parochial politics. Since regaining our democracy from the dark dictatorship decades, out of six presidencies, only once did we have a vice presidency with an incredibly competent official qualified to sit as president, if not one undeniably qualified even farther beyond his presidential principal.

Given the competence and experience of former Vice President Jejomar Binay arrayed against those of Benigno Aquino III, as well as the contending vice-presidential candidate who Binay had convincingly beaten for the veep post, the facts speak for themselves and the electorate’s choice to have Binay a mere heartbeat away from the presidency was a stroke of the electorate’s genius.

Even when arrayed against the background, experience and competence of his unfortunate principal, Binay was light years more qualified, experienced and competent.

Stepping away from the professional requisites of the vice-presidential post, and briefly traipsing into ethereal qualitative requisites, note also how Binay was infinitely more in touch, had greater amounts of empathy and was as far from the elitist, detached and alienated mode Aquino wallowed in.

More important, Binay had a deep sense of duty and profoundly understood the role of the vice president. He was never a gadfly. He was not disloyal. He did not attempt to undermine much less overthrow the presidency. And he was not an obstructionist. To Aquino’s rudderless listing ship of state, Binay was akin to a schooner’s centerboard or keel, a steadfast balancing force who provided critical stability for a bungling dispensation lacking the intellectual ballast, compass and balance necessary to complete its term.

Indulge us that skinny on Binay’s vice presidency in our attempt to lock on to the north star and by so doing we can situate the vice presidencies who range from spare tires to snakes and greater evils.

Remember the lowest and perhaps the crudest point in the relationship between VP Laurel and Corazon Aquino chronicled by her own press secretary Teodoro Benigno in his book, “Here’s the Score,” where he quoted her as declaring, “Babangitin ko pa ba iyang Doy na iyan, o pipitikin na lang ba natin na parang langaw?” (Do I need to mention this Doy, or do we just flick him off like a fly?)

Aquino, the saint we thought she was, never apologized for the slur made more painful given a series of broken promises between the two.

The other model of vice-presidential treatment was to paint the vice president as a potential greater evil, thereby an effective deterrent to impeachment adventurism, coups, rebellion, sedition and other power grabs. This invariably necessitates recruiting incompetents. Analyze the past. Didn’t we have some of those?

The third specie, a hybrid of the foregoing, is the most dangerous and is akin to a deadly python nesting hidden in a little-used closet in our homes. Unfortunately our flawed electoral system allows us to elect these snakes-in-the-grass.