It’s more fun in Pinas

Netnet Camomot

IN Vice President Leni Robredo’s video message for the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs, she’s smiling while talking about “body count due to drugelated killings,” “grim statistics,” and “more than 7,000 people have been killed in summary executions.”

With the video’s audio off, it looks like she’s talking about how more fun it is in the Philippines. Yay!

Why the disconnect between the message and the facial expression? Because she’s too inspired and has no room in her heart for negativity?

There has been chika that VP Leni is in love. Even President Rody Duterte hinted on that possibility. Well, good for her.

The first time I listened to then Representative Leni Robredo speak, she was bent on continuing to serve as such and had no ambition of even joining the Senate. The first thing I noticed then was the way she delivered a speech—like former President Cory Aquino—motherly, sweet, and soft-spoken. The kind that encourages you to focus and listen well so you could hear her speak.

Months later, she was convinced to run for the vice presidency, and the rest is history. She’s now the staunch critic of President Duterte, a role which she should not continue to embrace with that smiling face.

A role? Like a role in a movie? Hmmm. Who is absolutely sure with the reality behind the headlines when it comes to politics? Only the movers and shakers who are privy to a politician’s gut instinct, the ones who can read his thoughts and predict his next move without waiting for his speeches and messages.

A politician should be careful, though, on whom he listens to and confers with, because it’s now open season for people who want to use him for their own vested interests. Trust easily turns to rust in politics, so, tender loving care is required before believing anything that may sound legit at first.

VP Leni’s presence is light, there’s nothing “heavy” in her aura. She should not have joined politics, in the first place, because it’s not a world she would thrive in. But she’s already in that world—hey, she’s the country’s vice president, with the presidency merely a few more steps from where she stands.

The criticisms she has hurled against President Duterte are of course not coming from her tsinelas team alone. The title of a book that former US Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary Clinton wrote once upon a time, says it all: “It takes a village.”

It takes a village to shape a vice president’s thoughts, if only they could also advise her on the appropriate facial expression for a message to the UN on extrajudicial killings.

There’s this video of Hugh Jackman dubbing his “Logan” scenes where he has the proper facial expressions and sound for each scene, it’s understandable that he can survive through the movie process without a hitch because, well, he’s an actor and even won a Golden Globe for best actor in a musical or comedy in 2013 for his role in “Les Miserables.”

Politicians don’t have to be actors, although, some Pinoy actors have morphed into politicians despite a political career’s complexities.

Sen. Manny Pacquiao, whose multitasking activities also include boxing, does make politics look so easy, but it’s still complicated. As to why some people wish to be a politician, that’s a question only a wannabe politician can answer.

But we can try answering that question—for the perks? Glory? Power?

Any career, even politics, is not only about the pros but also the cons. A political career makes a person more visible to the world, he utters a word, and it’s enough to encourage the listener to interpret what he means.

VP Leni’s UN message is also being interpreted as a part of the plot to impeach President Duterte, but her camp has denied that.

Whenever I hear of an impeachment, I remember “Trip to Jerusalem,” the parlor game where you dance around a circle of empty chairs that are one less the number of players. When the music stops, the player who doesn’t get a chair is eliminated.

The country’s throne for vice president is now occupied. The music, however, continues to play for the hopeful who lost in the election but is now protesting his loss. Sore loser? Well, does this go back to the Marcoses versus Aquinos again? So ’70s and ’80s, eh? When did that rivalry exactly start?

We, meaning those whose awareness began in the ’70s and ’80s, still do wonder how Ninoy Aquino would have fared had he become the country’s president. His wife and son—Tita Cory and Noynoy—did become presidents. And here’s Pinas now in its present metamorphosis.

There was a blackout on Wednesday afternoon, and the first thought that came to mind: This is still happening in 2017. Add to that the slow Internet connection, the garbage on Cagayan de Oro’s streets and sidewalks, and question marks hovering above the resignation of a CDO city treasurer. Tsk tsk. Let’s watch VP Leni’s video message again, with the audio off, of course, so we can pretend “it’s more fun in the Philippines.” Yay!