Weekly Brief
Opposition men take a collective stand against Robredo's weaponised Gender Victim Card
In review and in prospect
Yet again the week that just passed was capped by an explosive event. A press conference yesterday attended by Opposition presidential candidates Isko Moreno, Norberto Gonzales, and Ping Lacson as well as vice presidential candidates Willie Ong and Tito Sotto exposed the dark underbelly of the Yellowtard campaign of “vice president” Leni Robredo.
In the few days leading up to that event speculation was abuzz over its agenda. Most observers were convinced there was going to be announcements of withdrawals to consolidate the Opposition. The eventual outcome was, as we know now, nothing short of a long overdue validation of the dishonest nature of the Robredo campaign with the group, collectively issuing a testimony of recent efforts of the Robredo camp to persuade each of the Opposition candidates to withdraw from the race in order to allow the “vice president” and her running mate Kiko Pangilinan to pose a more effective challenge to administration tandem Bongbong Marcos and Sara Duterte who are leading by huge margins. Moreno, Lacson, and Gonzales confirmed they will not be withdrawing and all attested to having taken statements from candidates Manny Pacquiao and Ernesto Abella (both of whom were unable to attend the conference) that they too will continue their run.
Get Real Post author Ilda, in her piece “Leni Robredo's deceitful and selfish character exposed by other Presidential candidates!” published last night writes…
Moreno is correct in saying that asking them to withdraw and give their support to Robredo is insulting. It’s presumptuous and tantamount to bullying. Robredo regards her fellow candidates as mere nuisances. What makes Robredo’s camp think that all the votes intended for the other Presidential candidates on the tail end of the popularity surveys will automatically go to Robredo?
There was, however a more important highlight of the conference — the palpable collective sentiment of the group with regard to the tiresome and downright dishonest modus operandi of the Robredo campaign. Ilda further writes, observing…
Robredo’s supporters are now summarily dismissing the claims of the other Presidential candidates against her as plain instances of “misogyny” and “toxic masculinity”. The fact is, these men did not use Robredo’s gender as a cornerstone of their arguments and were respectful in the manner with which they raised their concerns. However, Moreno did point out that they were reluctant to speak out against Robredo in the past because she is a woman. That was likely in considering that gender is an actual cornerstone of the Robredo campaign and therefore a space the men found themselves tiptoeing around all that time. Indeed, it had reached a point where they just had to collectively speak out against her camp’s modus operandi of emotional blackmail. Playing the Victim Card is a pillar of the Robredo campaign and asserting that she is being attacked just because she is a woman is their weapon of choice.
In effect, it seems the men have had it with having to deal with this Woman Card using a behaviour ingrained in men who were raised to be gentlemen — throwing a gentler pass to a woman because she is a woman. They had likely figured that expressing this sentiment individually would have invited the wrath of feminist womankind upon their respective campaigns. The solution then was to speak as a group. And so here we are. The only thing rather interesting to watch here is the Yellowtards response — essentially attempting to crush a collective protest against the abuse of the Woman Card using the Victim Card.
Do the Yellowtards honestly think that playing the Victim Card harder will deliver desperately-needed conversions to their “cause”? Perhaps they forget that half of the Philippine electorate consist of men. For that matter, that is something they should have thought of months ago…
First of all, the Feminist Card at play in the branding of the Opposition bid targets only half of the voting population — women. Second, of that female population, only a minority set would consist of members who would consider themselves in abusive relationships. The Union of Catholic Asian News reports that only “one in four Filipino women aged 15-49 has experienced physical, emotional or sexual abuse by their partner or husband.” On this back-of-an-envelope reckoning alone, could be gleaned that Robredo’s ill-fated campaign would directly resonate with less than 13 percent (one fourth of the female vote) of qualified Filipino voters. That is a clear set up for failure.
In her recent piece “23 Days: Words, class, final push #Halalan2022”, communist blogger Katrina Stuart-Santiago points out, “In reality, VP Leni would be the one candidate who does not operate on color, or divides, or difference,” and goes on to elaborate…
We’ve known this all this time. But her campaign decided early on that this was not solely about making sure VP Leni would win. It seems that from the start, they took this as an opportunity to shift the liberal color from yellow to pink, and this might be why they’ve taken the color pink a bit too far, making it less a campaign color, and more a rallying cry. It is identity, as it is about a sense of unity. It is a way of thinking and being. A major pitfall is that it is exclusionary—”kakampink” reeks of divisiveness, after all, especially when faced with any notion of “unity.” But it could only get worse when it was translated into Tagalog for a “Kulay Rosas Ang Bukas.” Because really: the color of a bright tomorrow is not pink. It is the colors of the Philippine flag: the yellow of the sun, the blue of our skies and seas, the red of our love and passion and revolt.
So many lessons so little time to learn them. Robredo's Yellowtard campaign had years to reflect and to strategise. All they can do today with just some twenty days to go is look back at all that wasted time and opportunity and sigh. Sayang.
Last week’s blog posts
The Sole Reason You Can Never Trust Leni As Far As You Can Throw Drilon
April 18, 2022 by Gogs
"She can’t lead the Liberal Party yet she will be effective with the Philippines?? She can’t blame internal politics. There are none now. There was nothing to leave. How can you not hold Leni generally responsible for the Liberal Party falling off a cliff?"
Leni Robredo’s deceitful and selfish character exposed by other Presidential candidates!
April 18, 2022 by Ilda
"Moreno added that at least he and the other candidates have something to offer the Filipino people whereas Robredo’s only goal is to beat Marcos. This is likely to be true because Robredo’s win in the 2016 election will be scrutinised once again."
Economies of the Philippines and Russia share a common denominator
April 16, 2022 by The Unpopular Opinion
"These extractive economic institutions observed in Russia definitely bear an uncanny resemblance in the context of Philippine colonial history."
“It was me in the sex video”: Why did Aika Robredo delete her tweet?
April 14, 2022 by benign0
"If Aika Robredo deleted a tweet that was supposedly an expression of 'solidarity' with a fellow Yellowtard, that says something..."
April 12, 2022 by benign0
"The fact is, there is no evidence that these 'sex tapes' actually exist. Even if they do, they are unlikely to be authentic as it does not take much nowadays to create and spread deep fake videos..."