On March 15, 2017, our very own Vice President Leni Robredo, placed herself in a bully pulpit in front of the entire world, to spread lies about the Philippines and destroy the sovereignty of our beloved country. She sent, posted and distributed a scandalous piece of propaganda full of lies, inaccuracies and reeking with the stench of a nasty woman hungry for power.
Leni has always portrayed herself as a righteous critic of the Duterte administration leading an opposition of decent, intelligent and freedom loving individuals. Leni has always portrayed herself as the mother of an oppressed opposition who is fighting for their voices to be heard in a repressive regime of Duterte. The video message she sent to the United Nations unveiled the true nature of her brand of politics, her perception of the Filipino people, and who she thinks has power over shaping and influencing Philippine politics.
Let me unpack her message to the UN and explain why I think her message is a clear window into the corrupted darkness of her soul. I will identify the different themes that show the kind of corrupted power structure Leni believes in and the lies she made in this message.
Mendicancy and Dependency
Leni likes the idea of the “international community” having their eyes on us and watching over our country. The Vice President of our independent country is comforted with the idea of the international community “watching over us.” This statement shows to us that Leni is content, in fact comforted, at the kind of mendicancy and dependency that has kept our country subjugated by the international power structures rigged by legacy empires that run the international community. When our President has been a trail blazer in challenging the traditional power structures that has kept our country dependent on the asymmetric relationship with the US and Europe, our Vice President instead takes the opposite route. In making this statement, Leni has reassured the international community that some of our leaders still believe in the relevance and importance of mendicancy and dependency. She has reassured the imperialist nations that run the UN that all they have to do is get rid of Duterte and the person next in line will restore the status quo. A status quo that our President has vowed to destroy by challenging traditional national allies who have sucked our country dry of its hope, independence and posterity.
President Duterte was elected partly because of his hard stance against the imperialist chains that have kept our country from achieving its full potential. The sovereign Filipino people, through their vote, has given the Duterte administration the mandate to chart an independent foreign policy. One that is not comforted with the idea that the international community will always be “watching over us.” For a Vice President to go against this sacred mandate is a clear betrayal of public trust.
Exaggerations and allegations
In this part of her statement Leni repeats a favourite number that the deranged Yellow opposition has been peddling – that there are 7,000 victims in the war on drugs. Where did Leni get this number? Clearly from Rappler. The only other media outfit I know of who is tracking the numbers is Inquirer who has a significantly lower number. The Inquirer Kill List at least has a list of names, dates and locations for each incident it tallies. Inquirer only counts 2,174 victims of the war on drugs – this includes those killed by unidentified hitmen. Rappler however just gives us some foggy numbers. They don’t even explain where they get the total 7,000 from. Rigoberto Tiglao has a very good criticism of Rappler’s muddy reporting on this – read his article here.
Aside from quoting questionable numbers that fit her invented narrative of the state of the Philippine drug war, Leni also makes a serious and unsubstantiated allegation that the 7,000 people were killed in summary executions. Where did Leni get this idea? Even the questionable source she quotes in this statement made a clear distinction. Even Rappler made it clear that their magic number of 7,000 is the total for both legitimate police operations and vigilante-style or unexplained killings.
In Leni’s narrative, the 7,000 were all victims of Extra Judicial killings. Where did she get this idea? The only answer I can think of is from Amnesty International’s flawed report. Amnesty International investigated 33 cases out of the alleged 7,000 cases and concluded that all those killed were killed by police sponsored and coordinated extra judicial killings. Even Amnesty International said in the report that their sampling method was not scientific, yet it had the gall and arrogance to make sweeping conclusions. This is the kind of intelligent reporting and thoughtful investigation Leni and the opposition she leads is content with. They are content with it because it fits their invented narrative.
As a Vice President, the people elected her to be truthful. The people appreciate valid and constructive criticism, but not this kind of deceit. Leni’s statement was full of lies, exaggerations, and unfounded allegations that is a clear betrayal of public trust.
Filipinos are living in fear
Here Leni shifts into gear and lets the international community know that the Filipino people are living in fear. She claims that her office has received numerous reports and complaints that they can no longer walk the streets in safety, that they can no longer trust the police. She was obviously making this up because she even mischaracterize “palit ulo” scheme. Her office has never come forward with a single instance of police abuse that was allegedly reported to them. The PNP, the DOJ or the Commission on Human Rights has obviously not received any of these reports referred to them by the Office of the Vice President. If there was any report then it would be all over the media especially because the CHR is a Liberal Party ally whose Commissioner is a close relative of PNoy.
Leni is clearly out of touch with the Filipino people because she clearly does not know how Filipino’s view their life today. So I will share a few surveys conducted recently that clearly debunks her claims:
I can keep going but I think you get the point. Leni lied and in doing so has betrayed the public’s trust.
All talk no walk
Here Leni makes a good point, a good drug rehabilitation program is important. The problem with this statement is she makes it appear as if drug rehabilitation is the only solution and that the Duterte administration has no focus on the rehabilitation and public health issue of the drug war. She claims to support rehabilitation of drug dependent and in providing assistance of the victims of the drug war. What has her office done about this exactly? Not once have I seen Leni fund raise for building drug rehabilitation centers. Not once have I seen Leni talk to drug dependents inside a drug rehabilitation center. This is classic Leni – talk like you mean it so you do not have to walk the talk.
Let me show you the kind of focus Duterte has on rehabilitation and tackling the public health side of drug addiction.
- Duterte leads turnover of drug rehabilitation facility, strengthens stand against drugs (link)
- China to build 2 rehab centers in Mindanao (link)
- hree billion pesos is being allocated in the 2017 health budget for the construction of rehabilitation centers for drug dependents (link)
- OPLAN SAGIP (link)
- DSWD eyes P1.4B to help drug surrenderees (link)
I can keep going but I think you get my point. Show me a list of drug rehabilitation projects that Leni has helped start or at least helped fund raise. Clearly Leni is all talk but no walk and the kind of posturing she is making in front of the international community is disgusting. To add insult to injury she peppers and lathers her posturing with lies, deceit, exaggerations and unfounded allegations. She claims to be the voice of the Filipino people yet she has not done anything concrete that has changed the life of the Filipino people. In fact the Filipino people do not even like her that much.
Leni never had the mandate of the Filipino people to be its ambassador in front of an international forum. The United Nations has some explanation to do to the Filipino people. How could they ask a political lame-duck to make a very critical statement about the administration’s major campaign without asking someone from the administration to respond to the allegations. The UN which claims to be the summit of a decent and democratic society does not even adhere to the basic concept of the right to reply.
0 Comments