Back in the day, there was an “activist” campaign billed “EpalWatch”. Under this banner, politicians who make public works about themselves get called out. One wonders nowadays where the Old Guard of EpalWatch are seeing that, in recent days, “vice president” Leni Robredo has been making her office’s so-called “relief” effort all about herself.
One can see it in the numerous videos and photos of Robredo circulating in social media today. She has basically used the unfolding humanitarian crisis surrounding the recent sudden eruption of Taal volcano to market herself and publish photos of herself “trolling” her critics. That makes Robredo no better than the garden-variety selfie-obsessed social media “influencer” — except that rather than use beautiful tourist destinations to backdrop her selfies, Robredo uses distressed evacuees in bleak surrroundings as context for her photo ops.
Worse, counted amongst Robredo’s followers who amplify these PR stunts are no less than employees of using equipment owned by the Philippines’ biggest media conglomerates. Think about that for a minute. Robredo enjoys every advantage a person in her position has access to in effecting her personal branding sprees.
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It is difficult not to speculate about what Robredo’s real agenda is. Consider that the Opposition has so far not found a viable (read, winnable) personality to lead them to electoral victory. This is more so disturbing for them considering that they had, just last year, suffered a catastrophic election loss in which all eight candidates within their primary coalition bloc failed to win Senate seats.
Leni Robredo is certainly doing her best to rack up the media mileage to set the stage for a Yellowtard comeback in the next elections. What is particularly distasteful is her use of disaster victims and the resources of news reporters to serve as background and distribution channels respectively to further her agenda. Rather than highlight the important and critical, Robredo is making all this all about Leni Robredo. Such a class act indeed.
Webmaster of Get Real Philippines