The Woefully Inept Leni Robredo Pt. 2

Sure, disaster management is not part of the job description of a VP. And true, she doesn't have to be in an area of devastation helping out and all that.

All she is, after all, is VP and the only job of a VP is to be ready to be President if the President is unable to perform his duties as president for whatever reason there may be. Kung baga sa beauty contest, VP is 1st runner up. Dakilang spare tire. Not exactly a small job.

But while the President breathes or is not successfully ousted (ehem), the VP can spend her days looking at the kisame and count butikis and no one - least of all me - will fault her and call her a slacker or write pieces with titles like "The Woefully Inept Leni Robredo Part 2."

Here's the thing though. Bicol is her bailiwick. These are people Leni Robredo owes her political career to. When she had no one, she had them. They gave her a most resounding YES by continuously voting her into office.

And that 'YES' when spelled out means: "We trust you." "You will not abandon us in our darkest hour." "You will be there for us."

This is what people believed of Leni Robredo. This is what she signed up for when she had the audacity to ask them for their trust.

And when strong winds buffet you and leave you cold, frightened, hungry - when your life and the lives of your children hang in the balance - this most definitely qualifies as one of life's darkest moments.

And it would have meant so much to the people of Bicol to have their madi Leni - someone they trusted and knew - right there with them.

One of the key components of disaster management is the physical presence of government officials because it sends out this message to beleaguered citizens: the government is in control and we have your back. The VP herself said so in 2015: "it is very important for local folks to see their government officials during and right after a disaster."

And yet Leni Robredo boarded a plane on December 23, 2016 with the full knowledge that in a matter of hours, a super typhoon was set to unleash its full wrath on her bailiwick.

People who have come to her defense say this vacation had been planned for a year, ano bah. And they say she cannot be in Naga during the holidays because it's too painful without her husband there. And they say it like we're supposed to say, " Ah ganon naman pala. Kayo talaga."

So ganito pala ang pagka-lider ni Leni Robredo. Walang sakuna dapat na mangyari pag Pasko because you know - grieving heart.

Wow.

And I submit that unless a person can forget her own woes for one second and unless she has reached that point in her life where she has transcended her grief and made of it the avenues by which she can be the source of strength and solace for others, I'm afraid that person will be self-serving and has no right to be in public service.

And I would like to tell Leni Robredo to sit this power grab out. She has no business fiddling with our democratic processes for the woeful ineptness she displays in all its hideous rawness.

Loss and grief - that is now the lot of thousands upon thousands of Bicolanos - shake a person to his very core. And to have a fellow human being be with you in your darkest hour is to give back to that person something precious - a piece of his humanity back.

Real leaders know all these.

The phony ones, however, need to be clarified about this.

They need to be told that leadership has nothing, whatsoever, to do with positions and job descriptions. True leaders do not ask, "Is this part of my job description?"

True leaders, in fact, have no time for shit questions like that because while the fake ones - you know, the ones who love press releases and mistake words for action- are figuring out if this is part of their jobs, the true leaders have already jumped into raging waters rescuing the desperate and the drowning.

(For instance, the first LGU responder during Yolanda was a Davao mayor named Rodrigo Duterte and he did all he could for the people of Samar and Leyte without fanfare.)

And once again this has to be spelled out so Leni Robredo gets it.

" No Leni, let's call your setting up relief operations in Bicol from the wintry wonderland NYC what it truly is - pure, unmitigated bullshit."

"Physical presence is non negotiable."

"Travel plans must be cancelled when your constituents are in desperate need."

"Public service means you will forget yourself for one moment to serve others."

"Meeting your subordinates for the first time on Day 45 as HUDCC head - when your predecessors and successor hit the ground running on Days 2-5 is on the level of 'shockingly abysmal, incompetent and lazy.'

So I suggest Leni Robredo and her band of clowns behind the reportedly well funded, highly orchestrated plan to unseat a wildly popular duly elected president - the decrepit billionaire Loida Lewis whose medication needs to be adjusted - stat! - Western press, mainstream media, the US, and the motherlode of losers, the Liberal Party - call it a day for now.

There is woefully much their appointed messiah, Leni Robredo, needs to learn about being a leader.

If she is serious about being the best spare tire ever, she must get herself some wisdom and some humility and watch how the masters do it - Rodrigo Duterte, Judy Taguiwalo, Paeng Mariano among others.

That's what Leni Robredo ought to do.