Vice President Leni Robredo last week appealed to voters to correct their “mistakes” during the 2016 elections, as she led the launch of the opposition Senate slate.
Speaking during the presentation of the eight candidates of the Liberal Party coalition, Robredo said voters should look into whether the officials elected in 2016 were able to fulfill their promises.
“Let’s go back. What were the reasons why we voted those we voted for in 2016? And hopefully, this 2019, if we made mistakes in the 2016 elections, now is the time to correct our mistakes,” she said.
“Let us not be carried away by sweet words and so many promises,” she said. “Instead, let’s look at who we will vote for and what their record is.”
The vice president is right, of course.
Elections give people the opportunity to punish those who failed to deliver on their promises, and by association, those who campaign under the same banner.
But Mrs. Robredo dissembles when she limits the “mistakes” of 2016 to the votes cast for President Rodrigo Duterte, because in doing so, she tells only half the story. The half that neither she nor her Liberal Party companions have ever honestly addressed were the mistakes they committed when they were the party in power.
In the two years out of power, the Liberals have failed to acknowledge that the votes for Mr. Duterte were, in large part, a reaction to their own failures under President Benigno Aquino III.
Would Mr. Duterte have won by such a large margin had Mr. Aquino’s Transport secretary—who now faces multiple graft complaints—not created such chaos in his department that, until today, car owners are unable to get their license plates?
Would the Liberals have been removed from power had Mr. Aquino’s Agriculture secretary done his job properly, instead of finding ways to misuse government funds?
And would the Liberals have been in the political doghouse had their leader not expended so much time, effort and money to jail his predecessor and persecute his allies, to the exclusion of more important tasks such as rebuilding the country’s deteriorating infrastructure?
Would Filipinos have voted for Mr. Duterte in such large numbers had they been happy with Mr. Aquino’s idea of governance?
Before Mrs. Robredo and her Liberal Party allies speak of correcting the mistakes of 2016, they ought to honestly address the errors they committed when they were in power—when they might have said or done something to make a difference, but kept their silence, or worse, encouraged the excesses that eventually led to their downfall.