Robredo’s redemption

Her position requires a certain amount of ongoing apprenticeship, if not ongoing education of the presidency so that the nation does not suffer a dangerous vacuum of leadership from the succession of one president to another.

It is unfortunate that Leonor Robredo interprets the President’s job offer as an insult. Perhaps the President was bluffing when he offered her the responsibility of being the anti-illegal drugs czarina. Or maybe he wasn’t.

For the second highest official in the land denied a significant role and virtually condemned to the doghouse because of her declared opposition to most of the government’s policies, including those that have nothing to do with the administration’s anti-illegal drugs agenda, the offer of the President should be seen as an opportunity for a second chance as indeed even the worst deserve second chances.

Since declaring herself the titular head of the opposition, Robredo has been something of a pariah, a pesky fly-in-the-ointment as she’s hitched on and straddled every opportunity to bludgeon the administration of which she is an integral part. From the most mundane and parochial issues, to the President’s manner and his off-the-cuff remarks, these have become targets for her, wrongly believing criticism to be her primary charge as opposition leader.

While she is free to take any position that her politics might suggest, Robredo remains the sitting Vice President. As such she is that among the whole bureaucracy with not simply a legal title to statutorily step into the President’s shoes should the unthinkable happen, but where qualifications are concerned, she is the only person whose qualifications to sit as president should mirror the President’s own.

While that latter aspect might be debatable depending on one’s politics, the position Robredo occupies inherently makes such demands on her competence critical.

More important, for the sake of a greater cause higher than partisan politics, her position requires a certain amount of ongoing apprenticeship, if not ongoing education of the presidency so that the nation does not suffer a dangerous vacuum of leadership from the succession of one president to another. The Vice President should not only be a spare tire. She should be a virtual co-pilot.

It is unfortunate that Robredo is none of that.

While Rodrigo R. Duterte’s offer of, not simply a job, but a position of high accountability might be taken as a mere bluff — rhetoric not meant to be taken as seriously as should policies be considered — the underlying wisdom of the offer cannot be denied.

Duterte is, after all, a seasoned political tactician and a skilled communicator when he addresses the political constituencies who’ve awarded him an overwhelming 80-plus percent approval rating.

As Robredo leads the charge to denigrate and belittle Duterte’s principal and centerpiece programs against the narco-state established under the Liberal Party during the incumbency of Benigno Aquino III, then the Duterte offer seems designed to be denied.

In other words, it may well be designed to be rejected as her prospective leadership against the previous administration’s fetal narco-state would be diametrically opposed to the interests of her benefactors where she might eventually have to lead the charge to prosecute her own party mates. The offer is then a no-win catch-22 where her rejection for any reason would paint her a hollow critic and a coward.

On the other hand, if she accepts the challenge then that can be seen as statesmanship on the part of Duterte where he offers her what would probably be the most challenging position of her political career and a unique opportunity to demonstrate that whatever she had been advocating as a solution to the drug menace might indeed be the way to go. Not everybody is offered the chance to lead an advocacy so important and popular.

While Duterte’s offer remains as simple rhetoric for now, lacking details and operational parameters, it would do well for Robredo to, at least once, rethink and reconsider taking the President up on his challenge while the forge is hot.

Her mere indication of interest should gradually redeem her from the uselessness she wallows in and reveal her to be genuinely competent to tackle the challenges of a presidency.