Battle lines drawn

Long before she decided to run for mayor in Naga City, former vice president Leni Robredo has been seeking advice “in politics in general and options she was considering” from her fellow Bicolano political leader Senate president Francis “Chiz” Escudero. So it was not a surprise if ex-VP Leni obliged Escudero’s inviting her to attend and join him as “welcoming party” to President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) at the Kasanggayahan Festival in Sorgoson last Thursday.

VP Leni first met with Escudero amid the offer for her to run as one of the LP senatorial candidates in next year’s elections. That was months before the filing of certificates of candidacy (COCs) when Escudero recalled his meeting with ex-VP Leni at the sidelines of the Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum where he was a guest last August 28.

Ex-VP Leni apparently finds much more comfort with the pragmatism of 55-year-old Escudero in looking at the political landscapes in our country. In turn, PBBM thanked Escudero for arranging what he dubbed as his “reconciliation” meeting with Mrs. Robredo.

A lawyer before she first served as Congresswoman of the third district of Camarines Sur, the 59-year-old widow opted to file her COC in the mayoral elections in their family homebase. After all, her late husband Jesse was Naga City Mayor for 19 years.

“For me, it is not an issue. In fact, it was a show of respect to the position,” Robredo clarified. “I did not hesitate to say ‘yes’ to Sen. Chiz when he asked me to join in welcoming (Marcos). I think that is only right, especially since he is our visitor here in Bicol region,” she pointed out. She explained her very short meeting was due to another previously scheduled event to attend to in Naga.

In short, Mrs. Robredo was gently telling political kibitzers they should not read too much from her brief meet-up with PBBM.

Mrs. Robredo was obviously still smarting from the hurriedly organized meeting she had with immediate successor at the Office of the Vice President (OVP). At the Peñafrancia Festival last Sept. 20, Mrs. Robredo welcomed to her house in Naga City an unexpected guest: VP Sara Duterte.

The two reportedly just exchanged “pleasantries and talked about the weather, the festival, common friends from Naga City,” a little birdie present at their meeting gleefully chirped. The meeting came after VP Sara resigned from the Cabinet and later officially broke off from PBBM’s UniTeam. “I guess it was just for optics of the OVP,” the same little birdie chirped.

It was the first time though that PBBM and ex-VP Leni shook hands in public after the two of them became bitter rivals, first during the May 2016 VP elections and then again in the May 2022 presidential elections. Now we know why Escudero was aghast at the fiery reaction from VP Sara.

Then senator Marcos and Escudero competed as independent candidates in the May 2016 elections. Escudero ran as VP bet of Sen. Grace Poe while Marcos was the VP runningmate of the late Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago. Robredo, on the other hand, ran in tandem with LP presidential bet, former Interior secretary Mar Roxas II.

All three presidential candidates lost and bowed to the runaway victory of former Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte. While it was Robredo who won the VP elections, Marcos contested the results before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) all the way to the Supreme Court (SC). When the SC dismissed it in 2021, the Marcos camp appealed the ruling. It was the longest electoral case that remained unresolved until Marcos decided to run in the May 2022 presidential elections.

Again Robredo was his rival, this time as the LP presidential standard-bearer. Marcos ran under the banner of the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas in a UniTeam in tandem with now-VP Sara. Marcos won this time by a landslide against Mrs. Robredo.

Thus, the Marcos vs Robredo PET case was officially terminated after PBBM took his oath of office on June 30, 2022. Mrs. Robredo calmly accepted her defeat in the presidential polls. For the past three years, she is leading Angat Buhay, the non-government organization she founded. And the rest, as we say, is history.

Methinks history won’t be kind to VP Sara in her latest antics at throwing tantrums. The 46-year-old daughter of ex-president Duterte lived up to her “bratinella” tag she earned after her livid appearance at the 2025 OVP budget hearing at the House of Representatives. In her two-hour long press conference held at the OVP last Friday, she spewed out all the venomous remarks at all people who crossed her path, including PBBM.

Whatever motives of higher interests of the Filipino people she espouses were lost to the very spiteful words she unleashed in torrents. Also a lawyer – and once mayor too of Davao City – VP Sara is now reaping public backlash for; her own “bulls**t” kind of politics.

We can only commiserate with her woes as a working mother with three growing up sons and a public servant at that. Among other gripes on PBBM, she admitted being offended of being deprived in the use of the Presidential helicopters to transport her to and from their home residence in Davao City.

VP Sara owned up to what English playwright and poet William Congreve once wrote: “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”

Her political rhetorics cannot and must not keep deflecting the questions raised on the alleged misuse of confidential and intelligence funds of the OVP and while she was concurrently the secretary of the Department of Education. She always points to her political foes already pouncing on her this early when the next presidential elections is in May 2028 yet.

The mid-term elections in our country scheduled in May 2025 are yet to take place. But this early, the battle lines are drawn. And it’s not even the campaign period yet also. Politics in the Philippines, like the celebration of Christmas, starts early and is the longest one running.