CIVILITY IN politics took another heavy blow with the news that the camp of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte prefers an inauguration separate from that of Vice President-elect Leni Robredo.
The official reason? Because Duterte wants a “simple and meaningful” rite in Malacañang—not Quirino Grandstand where presidential inaugurations are traditionally held—and having Robredo join the occasion would amount to an “imposition [that] will not be fair to Leni as the limited slots would restrict her prerogative to invite more guests and supporters, as a good number of the slots are to be allotted for members of Congress, judiciary, and the diplomatic corps.” That’s per Duterte’s aide Christopher Go.
This will be the first time in recent memory that the two top leaders of the Philippines will be sworn into office separately. Since 1986, both leaders have been present at the same historic occasion: Cory Aquino and Salvador Laurel in 1986, Fidel Ramos and Joseph Estrada in 1992, Estrada and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 1998, Arroyo and Noli de Castro in 2004, and Benigno Aquino III and Jejomar Binay in 2010.
Note that in only two instances—Cory Aquino and Laurel, and Arroyo and De Castro—were the two officials from the same party. The other pairings were a product of energetically contested, often bitter, elections that saw the president and VP emerging from opposing political camps, but both recognizing afterwards the necessity to reach across the divide and join hands in projecting unity and shared purpose on the most momentous day in a democracy—the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to its successor.
A presidential inauguration—where the electorate’s chosen leaders take the oath to do good by all citizens of the nation irrespective of their individual beliefs and stations in life, and to work for the people’s best interests at all times in the exercise of the power lent to them by the people themselves—is the one formal state occasion following divisive elections that allows the country to turn the page, renew itself, and mark a new chapter in its history. Having the two incoming leaders of the land on the same podium before the public—no longer as adversaries but as costewards of the people’s will and cocaptains in the monumental task of steering the ship of state forward—transforms the moment into a rallying cry for national solidarity.
Duterte’s wariness toward Robredo is now well-documented. He has publicly rejected the suggestion of giving her a position in his Cabinet—a tradition other VPs in past administrations have enjoyed—for a most unusual reason: He said he didn’t want to hurt the feelings of his friend, Sen. Bongbong Marcos, who lost to Robredo in the elections. He has not deigned to meet the VP-elect, but again has found time for dinner and chitchat until the wee hours of the morning with Ferdinand Marcos’ son and namesake. (And the latter, reveling in his special access, crowed afterwards that he would eventually take the VP seat “being kept warm” for him.) Not for this new President even a token gesture to recognize Robredo as, like himself, a duly elected official, in fact second only to him in importance and power under the Constitution.
Just about a month ago, in the wake of his election victory, Duterte had called for rapprochement. “Let us be friends. Forget about the travails of elections,” he said. “I would like to reach out my hands to my opponents. Let us begin the healing now.”
His continuing churlish attitude of shunning and shaming the VP-elect is certainly no way to abide by his call for reconciliation and healing. And refusing to have his inauguration with her on the absurd excuse that the invited crowd of “members of Congress, judiciary, and the diplomatic corps” cannot accommodate one more seat—four, if Robredo’s three young daughters are included—for the one political figure other than himself who in fact should be present, marks a new low in discourteous, uncivil interaction among public officials.
Duterte did say he would be a blunt, radical president. But disregarding basic politeness and graciousness in this way, on the first day of his presidency when he needs the entire nation to be one with him as he takes the reins of power, is grievously counterproductive. He has a little less than two weeks before June 30 to think things through and change his mind. He will be a better president for it.