Thousands of miles away in New York where they are both college students, Jillian Robredo and Frankie Pangilinan have spent time together to plan how they can help their parents—Vice President Leni Robredo and Senator Francis Pangilinan—in their bid to win as president and vice president, respectively, in the 2022 polls.
Jillian is Robredo’s youngest daughter with the late former Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo while Frankie is Pangilinan’s eldest daughter with actress Sharon Cuneta.
“Our babies, Frankie and Jill, in pink, planning how they could help us, thousands of miles away,” the vice president said in a Facebook post on Saturday, October 9.
“Of my children, Jillian took my decision the hardest. She feels so helpless being alone and so far from us. She wanted to go home but I told her that the best gift she could give me at this time is not to allow this to disrupt her senior year,” she added.
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Jillian is in her senior year at the New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering taking up a Biomolecular Science degree. She has a full scholarship.
“So glad that Frankie is there and they can both share the burden and the difficulties. As parents, both Sen Kiko and I always feel guilty of how our families suffer whenever we answer the call of duty. But both of us are lucky that when it’s game time, our families are behind us 100 percent,” Robredo said.
She earlier shared that it has been hard for her three children—Aika, Tricia, and Jillian—to allow her to run as president because they made her promise that her 2016 vice presidential run will be her last foray into politics.
But Robredo also clarified that her children have a high sense of duty and that they support her 100 percent.
On Thursday, Oct. 7, when the vice president announced her 2022 presidential bid and rumors started to spread that Pangilinan will be her running mate, Frankie posted a screenshot of her conversation with Jillian.
READ: Pangilinan admits to crying upon hearing VP Leni declare that she will run for president
Frankie initiated the conversation by asking how Jillian is, to which the youngest Robredo said she was just about to message Pangilinan’s daughter.
Frankie, who just recently left for New York again to pursue her studies, was the one who asked Jillian to meet up for “bonding.” It is believed that her mother, Sharon, is also there in New York with her.