There’s something about current “vice president” Leni Robredo that quite simply irks a lot of Netizens. Her recent activities distributing relief goods and serving lugaw (congee) and pandesal to evacuees fleeing the aftermath of the Taal volcano eruption should, to be fair, not really be a source of annoyance.
Unfortunately for Robredo, Netizens do get annoyed with these lame displays. It is likely because of the silly smile permanently pasted on Robredo’s face that undermines this otherwise sensible PR stunt. Indeed, rather than highlight the plight of the eruption victims, Robredo’s character is what attracts all the attention whether it be adulation or detraction.
Regardless of one’s partisan affiliation, one cannot argue that stunts like these make it all about Leni Robredo and not about the the ordinary people caught up in this crisis. One could also blame the media who clamber over one another to get a piece of Robredo’s exhibits and sound bytes and leave very little air time to tell the stories of real people. It’s a clear case of celebrity obsession made perverse by the contextual situation.
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Worse, the praise being lavished upon Robredo by her supporters makes it look like serving lugaw and pandesal to people is the pinnacle of political achievement. They think her actions are signs that she is a true “leader”. Robredo is basically a person with a job title but with no job description attached to it. She’s just filling time.
Robredo’s got too much time on her hands. These sorts of activities would normally be delegated to staff or volunteers by executives with real jobs. And even so, the focus of any documentary would have been on the evacuees and not on the politicians. We all know she’s just doing it for the cameras. Robredo is simply running on empty. After being fired twice for incompetence, she realised there is nothing more to lose. Her dignity is gone too and that is why she stoops to such lows.
In life, things are not always what they seem.