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LETTERS FROM DAVAO

By Jun Ledesma
Good riddance!

Because she cannot be stopped at demeaning her own government and policies of President Rodrigo Duterte there is really no point in keeping her in the Cabinet. I am in fact amazed why the President endured the presence of VP (Vice President) Leni Robredo. If Duterte is looking for an enemy, he needs not really search far.

Leni was a lovely damsel who takes commuter bus for a ride home. Remember the clever ad masquerading as news? She promised to be an asset to the reformist government of Duterte if given a Cabinet position. Duterte did just that, gave Leni Robredo, a widow, an important Cabinet position to demonstrate that he is not the enemy of those who thought that because they belong to a different political spectrum they will be enemies to the Duterte government.

But even before she can even warm her seat, Leni, who professed to prefer riding in commuter bus, started with her foreign entourage on board jumbo jets. While her President and the government, which she is part of, are being maligned and demonized by other leaders and human rights activists she opted to side with the other side along with her clique in the Liberal Party.

Which made me wonder over the kind of tolerance Duterte had on her. They had been diametrically opposed in many issues that confront the administration. Take it from the text of Leni’s letter “resignation”. She underscores her stand against the burial of Ferdinand Marcos in the Libingan ng Mga Bayani; condemns extrajudicial killings, reinstatement of Death Penalty; lowering the age of criminal liability; and sexual attacks on women.

For her to claim that there is a plot to steal the Vice Presidency from her is nebulous but she continue to rub that in to add to her subterfuge to further erode the image of Duterte in the world community. Just recently, UN rapporteur David Scheffer issued a stupid and irresponsible statement placing the Philippines in juxtapose with Syria, North Korea and other Islamic nations which are controlled by terrorist groups. This sounds like a choral ensemble of Sheffer and Robredo out to drag Duterte to the International Court of Justice.

And who knows where some of the distorted information were coming from? The Human Rights Watch had been on the trail of Duterte even when he was mayor. This pan-handling organization had been bedeviling Duterte since day one attributing to him the Davao Death Squad which is actually a ghost force at the height of communist insurgency in Davao. Robredo’s consistent tirade against Duterte especially on his all-out war against drugs is no longer tenable and she has to go.

The phone call advising her not to attend Cabinet meetings is the most inoffensive way to deal with Leni. It gives her the chance to submit her letter resignation. The Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council will not be without a manager to run it. Leni had busied herself with speeches in domestic and international forums and of late found pleasure in modeling for publications. We are happy for her she lands in the cover but sad because typhoon Yolanda victims have yet to see where the billions of dollars donated for their rehabilitation went.

How can one gently convey a message by phone if all you want to say is “good riddance”. (Mr. Jun Ledesma is a community journalist who writes from Davao City and comments from the perspective of a Mindanaoan)

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