Was Robredo finally making a break from the moribund Liberal Party? Had she, despite her laughable list of non-negotiable conditions before Duterte could bring her back into his official family, finally seen the light?

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Of course not. A lawmaker who remains a steadfast member of the LP (yes, there are still some politicians like that) recently told me that Leni didn't do the leaving; if anything, she has basically been told that it would make no difference to the party if she stayed or left.


"It's like this," the lawmaker, a friend from way back, explained to me. "The party has decided, for the moment, that VP Leni is not going to win us back Malacañang in 2022 [when the next national elections take place]."


But why wouldn't the LP support Robredo, currently the highest elected party member in government, in 2022? Has she been dumped for good?


"Let's just say that the party believes that we should wait for future developments," he replied. "After all, that's what we in the LP do, right? And someone always seems to come along whom we never expected, and that person turns out to be the savior of the party."

 
The lawmaker was referring, of course, to Noynoy Aquino, whose decision to run late in 2009 upon the death of his mother Cory catapulted the LP back into power. As far as Robredo is concerned, the LP is probably still smarting from its experience with Mar Roxas, who had a lock on the party nomination for the presidency since the beginning of Noynoy's term, but who lost miserably when Duterte "did a Noynoy" in 2016, coming out of nowhere to snatch the victory that Roxas already thought was his.


So, it certainly isn't true that Robredo is leaving the LP. It's truer to say that the party doesn't believe she stands a good chance of winning back the palace for the Yellow horde.


Robredo is damaged goods, even to her own party. She is just doing the trapo thing (the same stunt she pulled when she "resigned" as Duterte's housing czarina) by pretending that she's leaving when she's actually been thrown out.


Oh and yes, it would also be easy to dismiss this account of how things really went down as fake news. Except that my source is still very much around in Congress, finishing his last term after serving as a top, high-profile official of the Arroyo administration and is now contemplating a run for the mayorship in his suburban hometown.



Sources: 

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Leni's new drama, <a href="https://goo.gl/ysiG8W" class="news_link" target="_blank" title="Source">Jojo Robles</a>, March 8, 2018, The Manila Times
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(This article is adapted from the source listed above. We are unable to grant permission for any kind of reproduction other than social media shares.)

Leni Robredo's new drama