THE NEXT Vice President should be somebody who is not casting an eye on Malacañang, Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo, the ruling Liberal Party’s vice presidential candidate, said Monday.
Speaking at the vice presidential debate at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, Robredo candidly expressed her views on the role of the second highest elected official in the presence of one of her rivals, Sen. Francis Escudero.
Of the six major candidates for Vice President, only Escudero and Robredo attended the debate organized by the UP student group Tatak Botante
“I have always said that the Vice President should not have an ambition to be President because the moment he or she thinks about it, then that’s the end of him of her,” Robredo said in Filipino.
“Instead of concentrating on the job of Vice President, you will just use the position to campaign. That’s already politics,” she said, drawing laughter from the audience.
Escudero, who was seated beside Robredro, had previously admitted he dreamt of becoming President someday.
Asked by reporters later if she was referring to Escudero, Robredo said she was not.
“It’s not like that,” she stressed. “It’s just that traditionally, there’s always this (assumption) that the Vice President is thinking of being the next President.”
Not spare tire
“If you do not have that kind of ambition, your intention [to help] will be pure and your commitment to provide public service will be full,” she said.
For the junior lawmaker, the Vice President should not be a spare tire for Malacañang, but a source of inspiration for the people.
Said Robredo: “The role of a Vice President must be inspirational because you will be able to draw a lot of national attention to your advocacies, which we need to push for our country.”
Robredo and Escudero took the same positions on issues such as increasing the budgets of state universities and colleges; readying the Philippines for regional economic integration; opposing labor contractualization; protecting the indigenous peoples; promoting jobs to stem the outflow of migrant workers, and on the Vice President’s role of assisting the President.
Grading Aquino
They also graded the performance the Aquino administration as being 6 out of 10.
Escudero said he could go as high as 7 “if you feel kind and wake up on the right side.”
He said that while President Aquino himself was not corrupt, his administration failed to respond immediately to many problems, including vast government underspending.
While the government had a huge budget, it failed to use the funds, especially for infrastructure, Escudero said, citing the accumulated P623 billion in the budget that had not been spent since 2011.
Escudero and Robredo disagreed on the dispute between the Philippines and China in the South China Sea.
Robredo opposes bilateral talks to resolve the dispute, while Escudero favors bilateral and back-channel talks with China.