Robredo’s golden ticket

“I certainly think that there is something coming up, given that the President is a political genius.

This Administration has made a lot of surprise appointments (and terminations), enough to make it worthy of a Netflix series. For a week now, the appointment of Vice President Leni Robredo of drug czarina, or more specifically, co-chair of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD), has stirred much debate. Everyday in each newspaper you will read a commentary about whether VP Robredo made the right choice in accepting the position. This column, out of risk of being repetitive, is another of those. What can I say? It’s still a hot topic.

This writer is of the opinion that VP Robredo made the wise decision in accepting the challenge, mainly because she had no other choice. The acceptance took a couple of days already, enough to drag the issue, allow her own allies to even say that she is incapable of leading the drug war, give time for the public to come out with their own theories, thereby eroding her capability. Her press conference wherein she accepted the appointment was a thing of class, like the climax in a political drama, and she picked her words right. What comes after is the real work.

Immediately after her team started making calls to setup meetings, convene the ICAD, and do press conferences. At this point, VP Robredo should take it easy, but she’s rocking on hyper speed.

But can we blame her? She has been shelved due to political reasons for nearly three full years already, reduced to a mere commentator and critic of the President’s campaign against drugs. In any case, her office has a working budget, complete staff, and an impressive workplace. It’s about time that we put taxpayers’ money to use. And she is our country’s second highest ranking public official whether the public likes it or not.

However, it appears that she is showing too much of her cards, cruising into the path she is expected to take. Citing the need for research and learning the ropes, VP Robredo has been actively reaching out to the bench players. VP Robredo tapped the US Embassy and United Nations, who, like her, have been pushed to the sidelines by the Duterte administration. The Commission on Human Rights, one of the victims of this term, nearly suffered a zero budget back in 2017, though unmentioned in the first few days of Leni’s reign as drug czarina, has forcibly jumped on the Leni bandwagon to remind public that they must be relevant too.

But how else can VP Robredo learn what is happening if she’s stuck on textbook figures, unaware with the operations. Her presence in the real war on the ground will be a security and logistics nightmare, even if she shows up after everything’s done. As of this writing, the VP’s team has announced that she won’t join operations, but I have a feeling that she will pop up at one unannounced.

The administration’s press release is to support VP Robredo and to allow her access to the resources and information relating to the President’s drug war. It appears that Duterte is all-in on Leni, to the extent of giving up “Oplan Tokhang” altogether, arguably the centerpiece of the campaign against drugs.

We ask: What the hell is President Duterte thinking? Giving this up so easily right when he is enjoying continuous high approval and ratings. It likewise does not help that this comes amidst rumors on the President’s health condition. What is the ace up the President’s sleeve?

I certainly think that there is something coming up, given that the President is a political genius. This is a calculated move more than anyone may know, and it has ramifications that will carry on until after 2022. But for now, we just have to wait and see how VP Robredo will fare.

If I may say, no matter how this will pan out, that this is certainly a case study on why we need to revise the 1987 Constitution. It does not make sense why the President and Vice President are elected separately since they will eventually end up warring against each other if they are not from the same party, although I had a Kenyan delegate from their Parliament argue with me that democracy is more alive because of this. But democracy suffers if too much choice is given to the people. So if VP Leni succeeds or fails in killing the drug pushers with her kindness, let’s remember that all this politics is avoided if we revise the Constitution to mandate one vote to be made in favor of the President and Vice President together, instead of separately.