Tag Archives: Leni Robredo

Given all that has been happening, half borne of the discourse of confusion and noise, the other half just the utter lack of information, I almost missed what might be one of the best New Year’s presents we could get from President Duterte: his Executive Order 12.

Here, the President essentially orders all relevant government offices “to intensify and accelerate the implementation of critical actions necessary to attain and sustain “zero unmet need for modern family planning” for all poor households by 2018, and all of Filipinos thereafter, within the context of the RPRH Law and its implementing rules.”

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The aftermath of Vice President Leni Robredo’s resignation from President Duterte’s cabinet has proven to me – yet again! – that the strategy at this point of those in power, and I mean government and its Dutertrolls who believe the President is infallible, as well as the Liberal Party and its Daang Matuwid fanatics who believe the Vice President is santa-incarnate, is really only to make fools of the public.

The power struggle is real. And because none of those who are part of the struggle are in the least bit transparent, what is being revealed in all the confusion is the fact that there is little concern about what’s happening on the ground, and no sense at all of the bigger picture.

Basta sila mag-aaway, bahala na ang bayan sumalo ng kaguluhan. (more…)

It was interesting, to say the least, to hear about the Office of the Vice President (OVP) holding what they were calling The Partnerships Against Poverty Summit today, October 10. I wondered why it was that after 100 days, Vice President Leni Robredo has gotten away with pretty much doing nothing as Housing Chief — promising only that the roadmap would be complete by the first quarter of 2017 — complete with the assertion that “100 days is too short to hit targets,” yet here she was doing something else.

This summit is part of what they are calling the OVP’s Anti-Poverty and Advocacy Program, the goals of which are yet unclear, but which, if today’s poverty summit is any indication, is not only highly problematic, it is also absolutely redundant with the existing government Departments of Health and Social Welfare and Development, and the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC). Most disturbing of all: it goes against and is not at all a complementary project to existing government projects — which is what the VP herself said about it in a press con on October 5. (more…)