True to form, Sen. Risa Hontiveros battled mightily to prevent the dignity of the Senate, such as what it has become, from being fully shredded at the start of the inquiry into extrajudicial killings during Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal “war on drugs.”
But for Hontiveros’ efforts the upper chamber would have been in complete thrall to Duterte and his allies—a setting for an old boys’ club cockily chuckling at one another while the ex-president swore steadily at everyone’s mother and performed his characteristic repetitive ramble, with his train of thought constantly derailing. Her perseverance in interpellation got him to make “bombshell” admissions that are seen to help in the filing of formal charges against him and in the investigation of the International Criminal Court, before which he is accused of crimes against humanity.
Hontiveros had requested that the inquiry be conducted by the Senate committee of the whole, but it was ultimately the blue ribbon committee that took up the task. With the blue ribbon chair, Sen. Pia Cayetano, busy seeing to her reelection, it fell to a subcommittee led by Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III to do the honors. Which is just as well, the attentive observer may have noted, personal ties being what they are. Despite her professed advocacy for women’s rights and in the face of public criticism of Duterte’s sexist, misogynistic ways, Cayetano has declared love for him at least once in his presidency.
Not that Duterte was lacking in defenders at the Monday hearing. Senators Bato dela Rosa and Bong Go, his lieutenants implicated in the “reward system” that purportedly animated the war on drugs, had disdained calls for them to inhibit and sat easy in their skins during the proceedings. In a confusion of roles tolerated by Mr. Chair—the son and namesake of the late esteemed former Senate president Nene Pimentel who, back in the day, was a stalwart of the anti-Marcos resistance—Dela Rosa was loudly defensive in the many times he was given the floor: at one point, incredibly, accusing Fr. Flaviano Villanueva of Project Paghilom of making propaganda, and, in tender exchanges with Duterte, generally denying the disclosures made by witnesses at the inquiry of the House of Representatives’ quad committee into EJKs in the drug war.
Early on, Hontiveros cut Sen. Jinggoy Estrada’s attempt to make light of the hearing, calling it what it was: “no laughing matter.” Estrada tried anew in his interpellation of Duterte—indicating an apparent effort to frame the proceedings and the past administration’s “kill, kill, kill” theme as a “joke”—and her protesting voice was again heard. She would not let it pass.
And she would not let up on Duterte even if he and his coterie cockily enjoyed the perks of being on home grounds. She would not agree to being dragged with him to hell—his amplification of what looks to be the former first family’s motto. She would not concede the floor to his rant.
Appreciation for Hontiveros’ unyielding stance is widespread, and includes statements from some of her peers in the legislature as well as online messages from former senators Panfilo Lacson and Antonio Trillanes IV.
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Elsewhere, the photograph posted online of Leni Robredo in waist-level floodwaters helping deliver drinking water and other relief goods from her Angat Buhay Foundation to stricken folks in Naga City lays firm ground for making comparisons. The temptation to do so was recently triggered by the astonishing demonstrations of entitlement and bizarre behavior by Robredo’s successor to the vice presidency and further provoked by Severe Tropical Storm “Kristine,” which inflicted tremendous suffering on many Filipinos who still await rescue and assistance.
Going to great lengths to help those in need is not a novel undertaking for Robredo. As vice president during the Covid-19 pandemic that dramatically changed life as Filipinos knew it, she was untiring in aiding those at the peripheries—commuters, jeepney and tricycle drivers, healthcare workers, the like—despite then President Duterte’s categorical ban on her very presence.
The projects undertaken by the Office of the Vice President when Covid-19 was ravaging the country and the rest of the world focused on the welfare of the public, especially the frontliners who, despite their exceedingly important role in fighting the virus, received lackluster, occasionally even hostile, attention from the administration. These projects are well remembered because they serve as templates for current ones: among others, the “Bayanihan e-Konsulta” or free medical consultations, the production of personal protective equipment, the “Vaccine Express” or the immunization of essential workers in cooperation with local government units, and the dorms and free shuttle services provided healthcare workers to and from their work places.
It’s true, as someone recently remarked, that these projects were remarkable for being efficiently managed on the OVP’s modest budget—the highest being P900 million in 2021—and for drawing volunteers inspired by Robredo’s leadership and example.
Here is where comparisons can be made between past and present occupants of the second highest position of the land. As vice president estranged from Malacanang, Robredo ran her office with the intelligence, dignity and probity it deserved and without need to make extraordinary claims to special funds and security that the incumbent deemed imperative.
The break between Robredo and Duterte was a situation of his making. He barred her from the Cabinet, emboldening his then spokesman to lie through his teeth that she was a mere ornament (“palamuti”) in the administration. To refresh the collective memory, this was how the order for Robredo not to set foot in the Palace was formulated by then Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr. late in 2016, according to the then OVP spokesman Barry Gutierrez: “Gd afternoon Madam Vice President. Mayor Rody Duterte thru Bong Go asked me to relay to you his instruction for you to desist from attending all Cabinet mtngs starting This Monday Dec. 5 2pm. Ty.” No official explanation was ever given.
Yet this willful act of isolation did not drive Robredo to snide idleness marked by, for example, online “politician-with-nothing-to-lose” posts of dancing with her house help. Her absence at the Palace may have been decreed, but she showed up for her constituents and sought for them financial and other donations whenever necessary. That no controversy marred the use of the OVP’s budget—the proposal for which Robredo herself presented at House budget deliberations—is on record.
No confidential and/or intel funds were demanded, and given, for that OVP to function well. It received from the Commission on Audit the highest audit rating for two consecutive years.
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The spasm in the body politic that was the filing of certificates of candidacy for the 2025 elections has eased. The Commission on Elections is yet to complete its task of producing a final list of those eligible to run. But the general picture is even now quite clear—a breathtaking mural of the continuing desire for power and the shamelessness that buoys it to ever higher levels.
As usual but now to an alarming degree, much of the hopefuls are using popularity, notoriety, unlimited resources and connections to get at the plum. Political clans wield a stranglehold on power as though it were a birthright, yet they want more, more!
Surely this is unacceptable. Why does Vilma Santos think her sons are God’s gift to the good people of Batangas, and why does her husband, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto—who, until the Supreme Court stopped it, presided over the turnover of some of the unspent PhilHealth funds to the treasury—agree? Why does Cynthia Villar think her daughter should occupy her soon-to-be-vacated seat at the Senate when her son is already there, and why does the paterfamilias, the multibillionaire Manny Villar, think so, too?
Who do faded movie stars and TV hosts think they are and what on earth will they bring to the Senate table? Why are the Tulfo siblings yearning to get elected to public office en masse? What do Red-taggers and cult leaders charged with sex crimes have to show? Etc.
Risa Hontiveros and Leni Robredo represent the kind of leaders so direly needed by this country, which now faces another chance to begin to make things better.
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