Paging Leni Robredo

By Herbert Vego

THE 1Sambayan coalition has nominated Vice-President Leni Robredo to run for President because “she is the best-qualified candidate to lead the country.” There seems to be nobody else in the opposition capable of besting President Rodrigo Duterte’s “anointed” successor who remains to be seen.

It’s because one of the two unexpected stories that rocked the nation on day two of the filing of certificates last Saturday focused on presidential daughter Sara Duterte-Carpio filing her certificate of candidacy – not for President but for reelection as Davao City mayor.

The other news showed the President announcing his decision not to run for Vice-President anymore. But that’s another story well covered on the front pages today.

Back to Leni, we heard former Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio, one of the convenors of the coalition, prodding her to “lead us in healing our nation, reviving our economy, generating employment, eliminating hunger, ending the wanton killing of fellow Filipinos. The nation cannot survive another six years of gross mismanagement of the government and the economy,”

However, imagine a scenario where she declines that nomination.  Her supporters fear that, having transferred her voter registration from Naga City to the municipality of Magarao, she would run for governor of Camarines Sur instead. The better explanation, however, is that she belongs there; there is where her ancestral house still stands.

But Vice-President Robredo also belongs to the entire nation. She stands out as the only presidential nominee who had resisted Malacañang’s pressure to “see no evil, hear no evil and say no evil.” She could have “cooperated” in November 2019 when Duterte appointed her as co-chairperson of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD) together with the then Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Director General Aaron Aquino.

Duterte fired her on her 19^th day at ICAD for having shared her critical stand on the government’s “bloody drug war” to the United Nations.

Are the other presidential timbers critical of Duterte– Isko Moreno, Manny Pacquiao, and Ping Lacson – not good enough to restore sanity and good governance in this country?

Their pledges to end graft and corruption are rooted in personal interest discernible from their track records and speeches.  While Moreno had condemned the government’s procurement of pandemic-related goods and equipment at inflated prices, he later said that if elected president he would appoint Duterte to a cabinet position.

You see, until he ran and won for mayor of Manila in 2016,  Moreno had served the Duterte administration in two capacities: as chairman of North Luzon Railways Corporation from July to October 2017, and as undersecretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for Luzon Affairs from May to October 2018.

Senator Pacquiao would never have seen an anomaly in the Pharmally deal had he been “anointed” by President Duterte to succeed him. He had hoped for that. Sometime in November 2016 – do you remember? – he paid a courtesy call to him in  Malacanang.  As shown on the front pages of the newspapers, Duterte raised Pacquiao’s hand, saying, “Pang Presidente na ito ah. ”

Senators Ping Lacson and Tito Sotto – running in tandem for President and Vice-President, respectively – could be brushed off as “Manchurian candidates”.  Their alliance with Duterte culminated with the fast passage into law of their “ultimate bill” or what is now the  “Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020” that allows detention of suspected “terrorists” without warrant of arrest for 14 days, and extendable by 10 more days.

A Manchurian candidate, incidentally, refers to a politician being used as a puppet by another politician.

Despite the news that Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio had filed her certificate of candidacy for reelection, she could still be “persuaded” to change her mind just like her dad in 2016. In the opinion of former Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, she would run for President with Bongbong Marcos as her running mate.

It could be true in the light of President Duterte’s decision changing his mind. He would no longer seek the vice presidency in 2022.

Why would Sara not run for President when commercial pollsters – SWS, Pulse Asia and Octa Research – have already declared her “No. 1” with 20 to 28 percent votes of 1,200 survey respondents?

Does she doubt such surveys that placed Leni at the tail end with only five to six percent? Certainly, she would not be so naïve as to believe that the 1,200 respondents – assuming that the “non-commissioned” surveys had been done – mirror the sentiments of 110 million Filipinos. In reality, there is no massive nationwide clamor backing up her “Run, Sara Run” posters.

Perhaps she fears getting embroiled in a future controversy similar to the “glitch” during the canvassing of votes in election 2019 when a seven-hour “blackout” delayed the transmission of results from the vote-counting machines of Smartmatic to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

As a result, administration candidate Cynthia Villar topped the senatorial race while all the opposition bets lost. Believe it, or not.

It was to appease the angry public at that time that President Duterte asked the Comelec to terminate the services of Smartmatic in 2022.

Unfortunately, the Comelec has already awarded to Smartmatic the P402 million contract for the procurement of automated election system software for the election management system, vote-counting machines (VCMs) and consolidation and canvassing system (CCS) to be used in the 2022 national and local elections.

That could be a smart reason behind Leni’s hesitancy in accepting 1Sambayan’s nomination.

As one of 1Sambayan’s convenors, retired Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio should now lead the forces battling for reforms within the Comelec. As an independent constitutional body, its principal role is to enforce and administer all laws and regulations on the conduct of elections.

Hopefully, the outgoing President would stop breathing down their necks.

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JOJO JAVELLANA A JOLLY GOOD FELLOW

IT shocked me to know that a warrant of arrest has been issued against couple Carlos and Katrina Javellana in relation to a power pilferage case filed before the Iloilo City Prosecutor’s Office by MORE Power. Fortunately, they have posted bail.

The truth of the matter is that MORE Power has already withdrawn the said case following the couple’s settlement of their electricity bills sometime in March of this year yet.

This writer knows Jojo Javellana as somebody who would easily lend a helping hand to constituents in need.  He is a reelectionist candidate for the Sangguniang Panglunsod of Iloilo City.

We are quoting a portion of the distribution utility’s explanation on the status of his case:

“Although the issuance of this warrant is a step forward in finding out the truth, which is fundamental in protecting the rights of the accused as guaranteed by our Constitution–just as every Filipino is accorded constitutional rights in a manner that is just and in the service of the truth–we wish to reiterate that it is not within our domain to meddle with the affairs of the Prosecution Service and the Courts in the issuance of warrant of arrest against them.

“We have dutifully done our part to inform the Prosecution Office that we have reached a compromise and that we are no longer interested in pursuing the said case.

“It has to be noted that apart from the Javellanas, we have also withdrawn several cases against the other violators of the same act after they have settled with us their obligation. Our rule applies to anybody regardless of their status in our society.”