Briathrail // Albert 2MNG

This was imported from my old Tumblr blog posts.

Lately the evening news and online publications has reported that Leni Robredo (the incoming PH vice president) and her staff were informed by the team handling the inauguration ceremony of Rodrigo Duterte (unfortunately, the incoming PH president) that they wanted a separate ceremony. In essence, they told her to hold her own ceremony and that they don’t want her anywhere near Duterte.

It doesn’t bode well for the Philippines that the incoming President doesn’t want anything to do with his Vice President because it might hurt his BFF’s feelings, and because Bongbong Marcos is aiming to go all-out baby-whining to the Supreme Court because he lost to Robredo by at least 200K votes. Which he (unfortunately) has a constitutional right to do, but doesn’t do him any public favors. But if he wants to keep with his “I-got-cheated-because-blah-blah-blah-blah” shtick, I say let him, he has the right to do so. Whatever floats his boat, I guess.

And not surprisingly, Bong Go (Duterte’s aide/Chris Christie) has aired why they said such a preposterous thing to the country’s incoming VP: 

“This imposition will not be fair to Leni as the limited slots would restrict her prerogative to invite more guests and supporters as a good number of slots are to be allotted for members of Congress, judiciary and to the diplomatic corps,” he said. “More so, the remaining limited number of slots are likewise given to family and friends.” Go added that Robredo, her family and supporters also deserve to plan out their own inauguration. “We believe that Leni Robredo’s family and supporters who worked hard for her deserve also to be present to celebrate her victory,” he said. “And this can only be possible through a separate inauguration.”

From Kicker Daily News

Bullshit. They just got slick with their shit.

That line of reason has more holes than a colander. First off, “limited slots”? How many are these “limited slots”? Did Duterte book so many of these slots that the organizer didn’t even try to control or at least expand the ceremony to accomodate the two? And usually, “limited slots” is a business euphemism in emails. It usually is a backhanded way of saying “somebody booked the best seats” or “we have some space but somebody have pre-booked them already” or “we do have space but we have a preference”. So, not off to a good start there, dude.

Second, Leni probably will have entourage, but maybe not as much as Duterte’s PR-crafted manure is implying. Her children, maybe a few aides, and that dude she wants to be in the oath-taking swearing her in. Maybe around 10-20 people. And Malacanang Palace is a big place. How “limited slots” apply to Leni but not to Rody Duterte is something that is bafflingly mind-boggling. Let’s try to modify the quoted news if it will fit Rody Duterte if it was the other way around.

“This imposition will not be fair to Rody as the limited slots would restrict his prerogative to invite more guests and supporters as a good number of slots are to be allotted for members of congress, judiciary and to the diplomatic corps,” he said. “More so, the remaining limited number of slots are likewise given to family and friends.”

See? The same can apply to Duterte too. Did somebody dare ask Bong Go if Duterte was subjected to his “limited slots” rule? Did the press ask the “organizer” of the inauguration ceremony if the plan originally included Robredo? If they did, kudos to them, at least maybe there was an olive branch there. A wee little branch bark. But if the plans didn’t even include Robredo, why the need for the “limited slots” defense?

Third, why does Duterte’s PR team see the need to beat around the bush? If Duterte truly is the “change” coming to this country, and he’s well known to not mince his words, why does his team need to try to flower-ize his words? Just say “We don’t want Leni around because Duterte said so” and be done with it. I would dislike him more for it, but I would respect him for it as well. Telling it straight takes real guts. I mean, Duterte’s non-preference of Leni is already well known, because of shitty reasons that look beautiful only for him. Bong Go is like a dude tasked to make a camel pretty – no matter how many flowers (flowery words) he tries to put around the camel’s head (the obvious that Duterte want a separate inauguration), it’s still an ugly-ass camel.

Maybe Duterte should give his PR committee a pay raise. It isn’t easy to make Duterte’s words palatable to any sane Filipino. Every time he says something globally terrible, his PR team tries to spin gold from his shit. Maybe a reality show could make their work more appreciated. On PTV4. And for the record, I do have a bit of admiration for Bong Go’s work. His boss has a mouth that makes PR people lose sleep at night. Bong Go has an unenviable job. And he’s just doing his job here. Even if his job is to tell the press a tall tale of how “limited slots” favors Leni Robredo.