When Leni meets the VP

What was the bratinella thinking?

O ye of little faith. Of course Vice President Sara Duterte was in Naga City last week for the Feast of our Lady of Peñafrancia.

If she wasn’t a Peñafrancia devotee, then perhaps the VP is now. Or at least she probably wanted the company of the multitudes who sustained tradition and flocked to Naga for the annual festival. It couldn’t have been a visit in aid of election; the VP isn’t running in the 2025 polls.

Bicol is my mother’s home region and I’ve attended the Peñafrancia. The joyous religious fervor and camaraderie are contagious, and can be comforting for someone needing solace amid inner turmoil.

One thing Barry Gutierrez is sure of: VP Sara didn’t discuss politics, much less an alliance, when she dropped in at a moment’s notice at the home of Naga City’s political kingpin, Leni Robredo.

Gutierrez was Robredo’s spokesman when she was the vice president. Over the weekend he was busy fielding questions about what the two women discussed, and parrying criticisms from certain quarters notably former senator Antonio Trillanes that the visit was Duterte gimmickry that Robredo should have ignored.

Facing “Storycon” on One News last Monday, Gutierrez admitted feeling that Robredo had been “used” by VP Sara to change the narrative about her, which is currently focused on her alleged misuse of public funds and bratinella ways.

Granted this is true, however, and even if VP Sara practically barged into the Robredo home, it would have been impolite and bratty for Robredo to have refused to see the VP. Robredo did what any civilized, Christian and hospitable Filipino would have done, especially while her turf was hosting a religious festival: she welcomed friend and foe alike.

Having served as VP, Robredo surely also has respect for the office, and she showed this to her successor. Over the weekend, Robredo said her chats with Peñafrancia visitors, among them Senate hopeful Benhur Abalos and reelectionist Sen. Bong Revilla, were politically neutral.

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Trillanes has long been critical of Robredo, slamming her for taking her sweet time deciding whether she would run for the presidency in 2022 and effectively scuttling efforts to field a common opposition tandem against the formidable UniTeam.

Today the Duterte camp sees Trillanes as an ally and attack dog of Marcos 2.0. Trillanes has said he has no quarrel with Bongbong Marcos; they had worked together in the Senate.

Yesterday on Storycon, Trillanes reiterated his criticism of Robredo for welcoming to her home VP Sara. His beef over the visit boils down to this: Robredo was sleeping with the enemy and deodorizing Sara Duterte, and he hoped it would not be repeated.

Trillanes is crafting an impeachment complaint against VP Sara. He told us yesterday on Storycon that he was already in talks with a congressman who is willing to sponsor the impeachment complaint, which will cover over 20 alleged impeachable offenses of the VP.

The progressive bloc in the House of Representatives has also said the VP has committed offenses that warrant impeachment. So VP Sara is not just  being paranoid when she says congressmen are out to impeach her.

Whether such a move will succeed in the Senate, which will sit as an impeachment court, is another story. Trillanes sees up to 18 senators supporting the VP’s ouster by impeachment. But in this chamber of independent republics, it’s tough to predict how the senators will vote on Sara Duterte.

Is this issue fueling rumors in recent weeks about a brewing coup against Senate President Chiz Escudero? He has been noncommittal on the issue and has urged his Senate colleagues to do the same, because of the possibility that they might sit as an impeachment court.

The impeachment buzz, which VP Sara and her relatives are clearly taking seriously, could also explain the rumor about another subject that she allegedly raised in her chitchat with Robredo: that the 2022 elections were stolen by Marcos 2.0.

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Obviously, if this story is not simply Marites, VP Sara would be questioning the legitimacy of her own victory. But if she would be removed by impeachment anyway, what has she got to lose in pushing this issue? At best, she might force a review of the use of internet protocol or IP addresses in vote counting.

Former information and communications technology chief Eliseo Rio, et al, have been saying this all along, that hocus-pocus involving an unauthorized IP address led to that record-high landslide win for the UniTeam (and the shutout of the opposition in the Senate).

In 2019, then Davao City mayor Sara had called Robredo a “fake VP” – citing Robredo’s “character” and the “electoral protest based on massive fraud” in the 2016 VP race. It probably endeared Inday Sara to Robredo’s closest rival for the vice presidency, Bongbong Marcos. Instead of moping over his 2016 defeat to Robredo by a razor-thin margin, BBM aimed even higher in 2022, and succeeded spectacularly.

That disparaging remark of Inday Sara against Robredo in 2019 has been dredged up by those who say the former VP should have snubbed her successor when VP Sara dropped in unannounced at the Robredo home. Yet Robredo, to her credit, graciously welcomed the VP.

Rude behavior can be expected of a Duterte, but it’s out of character for Leni Robredo. Opposition personalities should be able to say to the ruling class (past and present): we are not like you.