Vice President Leni Robredo in 2022?

By: Bob Boyer

 

Recently I read in the Filipino Press that a major poll indicated that the top runner for Philipine President in 2022 was Sara Duterte (27 %) and that current Vice President Leni Rebredo was sixth (7%). I was not surprised that Ms. Duterte, the president’s daughter, was so popular in the poll, but that VP Robredo was so far behind. The survey had been conducted by the reputable “Pulse Asia,” between February 22 and March 3. It noted that lots could change by the next poll, on May 9.

I had assumed that Leni Robredo, as Vice President and leader of the opposition party to President Duterte, would be a front runner as a presidential candidate in the 2022 elections. I had not been following VP Robredo closely since my end-of-year column in December of 2021 and decided that I needed to update myself on the current Vice President.

My fi rst “Google click” took me to VP Robredo’s Facebook page, which promptly reminded me that she makes daily FB entries that keep her in touch with thousands of Filipinos (and others, including me, in the U.S.). She has a pleasing FB style and goes pretty much by “Leni” to her many FB friends. I discovered that Leni Robredo continues to do the vital work she had begun at the outset of the pandemic. She spends a great deal of time helping fi ght COVID in very concrete ways, including daily FB updates. These include statistics about the number of new cases and deaths. They include color illustrations, graphs, and pictures that communicate the Department of Health reports in everyday terms and pictures.

VP Robredo makes other important FB entries, notably about freedom of the press. One entry of particular interest is her recent personal statement on World Press Freedom Day (May 3, 2021). Here is a portion of her statement:

“It remains the task of leaders of governments everywhere to respect and uphold freedom of the press, and to extend every protection to the women and men who must risk their lives, freedom, and reputations to bring to public awareness the truth behind events. Democracy cannot survive, much less fl ourish, without a free press that works to keep citizens informed by equipping them with a common, verifi able baseline of fact on issues pertinent to society and governance. . . . Today, let us renew our determination to support a free press.”

Leni Robredo’s personal statement of the fundamental principle of democracy, freedom of the press, closely echoes the repeated warnings of the fi rst U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, appointed by President Washington. Hamilton repeatedly warned that a democracy cannot survive without a free press.

With the questions of Leni Robredo’s plans for the forthcoming 2022 presidential elections in mind, as well as her appeals for freedom of the press, my attention was attracted by a May 5 “Manila Times” headline, “ABSCBN shutdown ‘major electoral agenda’ in 2022 polls-House Leaders.” I had reported about the court decision to shut down this widely followed daily TV-News program for “libel” earlier this year when writing about Maria Ressa, editor of “Rappler,” and a prominent critic of President Duterte, who was to be imprisoned for the same new libel law. Ressa, in a PBS “Frontline” interview, declared that she was astonished that a major news outlet such as ABS-CBN had been closed (it reopened in digital form).

The May 5 “Manila Times” article about ABS-CBN quotes the Deputy Minority Leader of the House of Representatives regarding the libel-law shut down of the major news network: “He said the shutdown of the network by ‘undemocratic forces’ may have ‘dented the freedom of the press, but it failed to silence [a] nation seeking accountability amid this pandemic-aggravated crisis.’”

Clearly freedom of the press will be an issue in the 2022 election. In that case Leni Robredo is on solid ground. She has not, however, indicated that she would be a candidate for president. She has three daughters, whom she has raised as a single Mom since her husband died in a tragic plane crash over ten years ago. She seems to be torn between her desire to dial down her political involvement in favor of a less hectic life, perhaps combining a more minor political position and more major Mom positon. She has not been angling for the presidency, but she hasn’t said no.

Bob Boyer welcomes your comments/questions at Robert. boyer@snc.edu.