Beyond the pink fiesta

When Vice President Leni Robredo embarked on a quest for unifying the opposition to avoid a repeat of the debacles of 2016 and of 2019, it was an outwardly transparent process. What was not transparent was what Robredo talked about with the parties of interest.

When Ping Lacson proposed that he and Robredo agree that, based on the projected vote numbers, the candidate with less would withdraw in favor of the other, Robredo reportedly did not agree. However, it is not clear what if any she proposed in these meetings.

It would have been part of sound procedure to go down a list of agenda items for discussion, compromise, and agreement. Now we get snippets of what was discussed. Robredo has said that in her discussion with Mayor Isko Moreno, she apparently could not agree with Moreno on the Marcos issues.

It is not as if the Marcos issues are black and white. There are several issues—plunder and hidden wealth, human rights abuses, the destruction of democracy and the economy, historical revisionism, lack of acknowledgement and atonement for the wrongs done to the people, rejection of the judgments of courts, using the people’s money to subvert their will, and many others. One cannot cherry-pick a position on any of these and foist it as “the” defining stand of the other negotiating party on these issues.

For months leading to the filing of the certificates of candidacy, Robredo kept the Liberal Party, of which she is chair, hibernated through her inaction and indecisiveness. The party could not declare her as the standard-bearer because she had yet to decide whether to run or not. In deference to her preeminent claim, the Liberal Party could not search for or nominate other possible standard-bearers in case she opted not to run. In trying to be inclusive, Robredo constrained the Liberal Party. The Liberal Party was not even part of the 1Sambayan coalition designed to unite the opposition.

When the 1Sambayan process got underway, it looked like a genuine but amateurish effort to get the opposition united against the Duterte nominee for president. 1Sambayan ended as a groundswell of support for Robredo so she would be convinced to run. This optic required an internal survey spectacle with a cast of three million 1Sambayan members.

This partisan demonstration does not negate the single-digit voter preference standing of Robredo in the Pulse Asia and other recent surveys. Still, she declared her candidacy to much joyous applause of the 1Sambayan partisans. This must have been the moment of truth she said she had warned herself repeatedly about. She took the plunge anyway.

What surprised everyone was Robredo declaring herself as an independent candidate for president. After keeping the Liberal Party hostage for months, she abandoned it in a very public manner. It is not clear how the Liberal Party came to be at her disposal.

Perhaps to assuage Liberal Party sensibilities, Robredo then chose Sen. Francis Pangilinan, the party president, to be her vice presidential candidate. Pangilinan accepted, although it is not clear whether his acceptance was on behalf of himself or his party.

All these quizzical twists raised by Robredo’s declaration were drowned out by her tactical brilliance in choosing and announcing pink as her campaign color. 1Sambayan partisans, who were like orphans in a desolate political landscape, got an instantaneous Lipovitan treat after days of being on tenterhooks.

The pink fiesta will continue for sometime on social media, but will it wag the politectonic reality leading up to May 2022? The upcoming surveys should tell us whether the middle political forces, like the yellows, will be tickled pink.

In all these, one gets a worrying glimpse of Robredo’s political style. She is as much a loner as President Duterte when it comes to critical decision-making. She does not engender the consultative decision-making required in uncertain and critical situations.

There is so little regard for the residual usefulness of the Liberal Party. Is it now the game of the leader linking directly to followers, making the organization superfluous? Is “pink” thinking replacing machinery and hierarchy? In the arena of extemporaneous political combat, it uncannily looks like a new fist bump.

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