After Padilla hails Robredo, Cendaña says that’s not your script before

Akbayan Rep. Percival Cendaña. — Photo from Akbayan Perci Cendana/Facebook

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Robinhood Padilla and his supporters’ sudden praise of Naga City Mayor Leni Robredo’s transparency and anti-corruption initiatives comes as a surprise for Akbayan party-list Rep. Percival Cendaña, who said that this was not how these people treated the former vice president before.

Cendaña, during an online press briefing on Tuesday, said that Robredo’s directive — the strict enforcement of the no-gift policy for government employees — is a good move to prevent corruption at all levels.

However, Padilla’s posts on social media hailing the Naga City local chief executive and saying that Vice President Sara Duterte is doing the same thing were not lost on Cendaña, who noted the irony between the past and present statements made by Duterte supporters.

“What they did in Naga City is really great, reinforcing the rule that government officials should not be allowed to receive gifts. We’ve seen in the past how corruption starts when contractors begin giving gifts to government officials,” Cendaña said.

“It’s like now, all of a sudden, they’re praising VP Leni and her camp, when back then, when they were in power, they did everything to marginalize VP Leni and her good governance practices,” he added.

According to Cendaña, Duterte will never match how Robredo served at the Office of the Vice President (OVP), stressing that Robredo did not have allocations and issues concerning confidential funds, unlike Duterte.

“We just want to remind everyone: VP Leni is very different from VP Sara, because VP Leni didn’t have confidential funds, which, up to now, still haven’t been properly explained,” Cendaña noted.

On her Facebook page, Robredo said that all offices in the Naga City government will soon be displaying “No Gift Policy” posters in observance of her Executive Order No. 58.

Robredo said the measure aims to instill “the value of serving the public with utmost responsibility, integrity, loyalty, and efficiency,” as gifts are “unnecessary in obtaining government services.”

“The institutionalization of a comprehensive ‘No Gift Policy’ is a safeguard against conflicts of interest, corruption, and even the appearance of partiality or undue influence. Public office is a public trust, and we must always uphold that trust,” Robredo said.

Padilla, on his own Facebook page, meanwhile, shared a news item about Robredo’s directive, saying that Vice President Duterte does the same.

“VP Inday Sara Duterte is the same; her staff repeatedly tells people everywhere we go abroad about the no-gift policy. So, my fellow Filipinos, please don’t feel bad if I don’t accept what you hand to me or if I give it to someone else,” Padilla said in Filipino in a post on Monday.

Minutes after sharing the news item, Padilla — who also hails from Bicol Region — uploaded a video wherein Robredo, who was with Sen. Bam Aquino, noticed him watching a previous livestream.

Aquino, Robredo’s campaign manager during her 2022 presidential bid, left a comment thanking Padilla for helping Naga City residents after typhoons.

“This is how we are in the Bicol Region,” Padilla said.

“Thank you very much, Sen. Robin Padilla, for watching our Facebook Live with Mayor Leni and, of course, for helping our fellow Nagueños during the height of Typhoon Kristine,” Aquino said in the comment.

Robredo’s tenure as vice president coincided with the term of Duterte’s father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, who was in office from 2016 to 2022. During the said years, OVP’s budget suffered several cuts, with National Expenditures Program (NEP) versions not breaching the P1 billion mark.

Robredo was on the receiving end of attacks from Duterte’s supporters, and oftentimes, from the former president himself.  In October 2019, Duterte criticized Robredo for allegedly destroying the drug war’s credibility in foreign media interviews, as she supposedly asked that the campaign be stopped.

The former vice president later clarified that she never intended to ask for the drug war’s stoppage, as she only sought a reassessment of the program.  But Duterte then suggested that she herself manage the country’s anti-drug campaign — to which Robredo responded by taking the offer, making her the co-chairperson of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD).

READ: Duterte dares Robredo: Lead drug war 

But in less than a month after her appointment, Duterte removed her from the post, citing a lack of trust.  Aside from these, Duterte supporters on social media, like former Overseas Workers Welfare Association deputy administrator Mocha Uson, also made several unpleasant remarks towards Robredo.

A study released last February 2022 showed that Robredo was the biggest victim of disinformation efforts. /das