Oh Leni
The Leni here is, of course, Leni Robredo who I believe must be quite a woman for a man like Jesse Robredo to choose for a lifetime partner. But I have been disappointed in Leni once, when she agreed to run for Congress on the heels of her husband's untimely demise. But I eventually dismissed my disappointment, convinced that she really could not say no to the people who provided her strength during her time of bereavement.
But by this time I am sure she has repaid her debts. Besides, it is time she really took a long hard look at the people who sang paeans for her husband and realize they are the same people who either helped clip Jesse's wings at the DILG by forcing him to share the department with a presidential shooting buddy or did nothing about the clipping.
Oh Leni, you should reach deep down into your conscience and ask whether their asking you now to run for vice president as runningmate of Mar Roxas really all about you or all about Mar. You should ask if they are doing this for the country or doing this for their party. You are a lawyer, Leni, and a mother to three daughters. That should make you both prudent and protective at the same time.
Prudence and protectiveness make for good common sense. Use it, Leni. The fate of the nation does not hinge on your saying yes to the invitation, but which it will be if you decide to run and you win and be forced to step up if something happens to the president. Do not think vice president Leni. Think president because that you will be in case something happens.
Are you ready? No, let me rephrase that -- are you ready for the Filipino nation? Are you ready for the Filipino people? Remember, Leni, that the illusion is grand only because they are still courting you. You will hear nothing but the sweetest of things and the most persuasive of promises. They will tell you it is easy and that if it is not, they will take care of everything.
But is that the voice of the Filipino nation, of the Filipino people speaking? Or is it just the voice of those who surround you now because they have some great use for you? You have to decide, Leni, if they really want you for vice president or they want you as vice president for Roxas? There is a very big difference there, you know.
If they really want you for vice president, they could have told you right from the start. But they went shopping around first. In fact they truly wanted no one else but Grace Poe. How many times did the president himself call for Poe in Malacañang to woo her? I cannot recall but maybe you can. And after Poe, weren't they interested in Vilma Santos?
It is not really you, Leni,that they want. They just happen to believe that the magic in your husband's name, the same magic that propelled you to Congress, would still be there to -- and please listen very carefully -- propel not you to the vice presidency but Mar Roxas to the presidency. For the brutal truth, Leni, if you only can read this, is that they couldn't care less if you win or not, although you winning will be a bonus to them.
What those whispering in your ears truly want is for the votes that you will certainly generate to also go to Mar Roxas and help him win. It is the victory of Roxas that is important, not yours. Please do not fall for the sirens' call, Leni. It is a crazy world out there and you should know that yourself. If you can look back with clear, incisive, even critical, eyes to when your husband was alive, you should derive some pretty neat lessons about sincerity, opportunism and hypocrisy.
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