Keeping her late husband’s tradition on Valentine’s Day, Vice President Leni Robredo continued on Monday, February 15, the practice of giving out roses at Naga City Hall.
Robredo was not able to give it by herself to city hall female employees, but she asked someone to do it in her behalf, Camarines Sur 3rd District Rep. Gabriel Bordado Jr.
Bordado is a close friend of the vice president’s late husband, former Interior secretary and Naga City mayor Jesse Robredo.
”Unable to go home to Naga earlier than scheduled to fulfill a tradition started by Jesse more than 20 years ago,” she said in a Facebook post.
According to the lady official, the giving of flowers on Valentine’s Day has been a tradition started by Jesse when he was still alive.
This year’s Valentine’s Day celebration fell on a Sunday, prompting Bordado to give out the flowers today, Feb. 15, his birthday.
“I asked Cong. Gabriel Hidalgo Bordado Jr. if he can do it for me, forgetting that he’s celebrating his birthday today,” she said.
The vice president expressed appreciation to Bordado for “being game about it even if it meant spending your birthday this way.”
On Valentine’s Day, she remembered her late husband by sharing a photo of her being hugged tightly by Jesse in one of their trips abroad.
“Feels both like yesterday and a lifetime ago,” she wrote.
Jesse was killed in a plane crash in August 2012. He left behind his wife and their three daughters—Aika, Tricia, and Jillian.