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BY PRINCE GOLEZ, Manila and MERIANNE GRACE EREÑETA, Iloilo City
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PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte was bearing the brunt of barring Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo from attending Cabinet meetings — several netizens, activists and other government officials believe he was antagonizing the vice president.
The prohibition prompted Robredo to quit the Cabinet.
She tendered her resignation as chairwoman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) Monday, Dec. 5 but announced that she was stepping down early Sunday evening.
Cabinet Secretary Jun Evasco Jr. replaced her as housing czar, according to Communications Secretary Martin Andanar. (Related story on page 2)
Senate President Pro Tempore Franklin Drilon, a Robredo ally in the Liberal Party, went as far as saying that forcing Robredo to quit was part of the Duterte administration’s “sinister agenda” to unseat her.
“The writings are on the wall,” he said Monday. “The administration wants the political capital of Robredo diminished by stripping her of any opportunity to fulfil her mandate as Cabinet member and head of the HUDCC.”
Drilon claimed the move was meant to “install defeated vice presidential aspirant (Ferdinand) Bongbong Marcos (Jr.) as vice president.”
Robredo beat Marcos by only 200,000 votes during the May elections. The latter’s camp claimed Robredo cheated and asked the Presidential Electoral Tribunal to reopen several ballot boxes and annul election results in some parts of Mindanao.
Drilon called on the public to “be vigilant and discerning,” especially that Duterte is expected to appoint the majority of Supreme Court justices in the coming years.
“The country needs a more independent, resolute and uncompromising Supreme Court,” he said. “Let us guard the process to make sure only those who respect and believe in the rule of law will be appointed.”
“Abusive” and “toxic” was how Sen. Risa Hontiveros described Robredo’s relationship with the Cabinet.
“While others were removed for their inadequacies, Robredo was barred from future Cabinet meetings because she dared oppose the burial of former president Ferdinand Marcos (Sr.) at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, extrajudicial killings, reimposition of death penalty, lowering the age of criminal liability, and misogynistic attacks against women,” she said.
Hontiveros believes the public are behind Robredo. “The people will more than make up for the support President Duterte and his Cabinet failed to give her,” she stressed.
Robredo received a text message from Evasco relaying Duterte’s instructions through Presidential Assistant Bong Go for her “to desist from attending all Cabinet meetings” starting Dec. 5. She was appointed to the HUDCC in July.
Meanwhile Sen. Paolo Benigno Aquino IV respects Robredo’s decision to “serve our people outside of the Cabinet.”
Being “treated poorly, unsupported and even disrespected” would make it difficult for her to perform her Cabinet duties, said Aquino.
On Twitter, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV said Robredo’s resignation “was bound to happen.”
“And I am so glad it happened sooner than later,” he said. “Otherwise, she would have been tainted by the Duterte administration’s politics of death, divisiveness, deceit, and impunity.”
House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, a Duterte ally, said Robredo was “fired” from the Cabinet.
Duterte’s firing of Robredo was “unbecoming of a public official, antagonistic, and clearly tainted with serving some political interest,” a political science teacher in Iloilo City told Panay News.
Nestor Jeremy Moreno, who teaches at University of Iloilo-PHINMA, believes the other appointees “did not like working with an ally of the (previous) Aquino administration.”
Moreno, also a law student at the University of San Agustin, pointed out the alleged “plot to oust the vice president” and replace her with Marcos Jr. may have something to do with the move.
“The President might want to distance Robredo from the Cabinet to keep some of these moves unseen by her,” he said.
An activist also believes the move was purely political.
“The President is against her allies,” Bagong Alyansang Makabayan – Panay spokesperson Reyland Vergara told Panay News in Hiligaynon. “She must have felt out of place in the Cabinet.”
It was right for Robredo to resign, said Vergara. “We expected her to quit. Anhon mo kon wala gid sia sang dako nga item nga nauyatan. Pareho lang nga tawo-tawo sia sa duldol.”
A 21-year-old West Visayas State University graduate was saddened by what happened. “The administration was not acting on her plans,” Kenn Bryan Lipura said, adding that Robredo could have done more as a Cabinet member.
A bartender lauded Robredo for leaving the Cabinet. “Her resignation shows and proves that she has principles,” John Paul Corpuz told Panay News.
Like Corpuz, Jester Paul Bacabac Paul supports Robredo’s decision.
“I stand with the vice president,” said Bacabac, a nongovernment organization worker. “This put her in a better position to follow and protect the mandate given to her by the Filipino people as the legitimate vice president.”
Supporter Aura Landar believes the vice presidency cannot be stolen from Robredo.
“For us who worked hard for her victory, we will not allow [that to happen]. We will protect her,” said Landar, a member of Kaya Natin Movement for Good Governance and Ethical Leadership. “Leni won the election. She will get out of this again victorious.”
She also urged the public to support Robredo “not with silence but with vigilance.”/PN
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