Music and swimming are the two things the Robredo sisters have in common with themselves, their mom, Vice President Leni Robredo, revealed during the third episode of “The Leni Robredo Podcast.”
Robredo’s daughters—Aika, Tricia, and Jillian—joined the Vice President for the special two-part episode wherein they shared that their parents were particularly pushy about their involvement in sports and music apart from their academics.
“Music sa aming tatlo (for the three of us is) common kasi (because) requirement talaga siya sa aming magkakapatid (for us siblings),” Tricia, a medical doctor, said in the podcast.
Tricia once took up piano and violin lessons and Robredo even posted a video of her playing the instrument on her Instagram account. In the post, the latter revealed that her daughter hasn’t played “in a long while” because she was busy pursuing her medical degree.
Aika shared that their parents—the Vice President and the late former Interior secretary Jesse Robredo—pushed her to have a “premiere recital” during her third year in high school because they felt that she will be busier with school once she’s in her fourth year.
“Every day magpapractice ako andun siya sa labas ng (I will practice she’s there outside the) music room,” she said, referring to their mother.
Jillian, the youngest of the sisters who is in New York pursuing a degree in Biomolecular Science, added that she pushed herself to excel “every day.”
“I am more afraid of mama than with my coach,” she said in Filipino.
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But the Vice President revealed that she could never push their youngest to excel in piano because she didn’t like the lessons after spending two years of taking them.
“Ma-pop ako nun, di ba? ‘Yung piano puro siya classical nakakatulog ako (I’m into pop those days, right? Piano is classical so I fall asleep) during the lessons...Nakakatulog ako sa piano sobrang hindi ko kinaya (Piano induces me to sleep so I can’t take it),” Jillian said.
Instead, the Robredo couple allowed their youngest to take up guitar lesson when she was in fifth grade. She’s also more into singing than playing musical instruments.
Robredo proudly shared that Jillian was always a contestant in vocal solo contests and that she only lost once.
All three of them were also into swimming, with Tricia once saying that their father, despite being mayor of Naga City that time, never missed a single competition of hers and always tried to be present at every event.
But eventhough their parents were a bit demanding with music and swimming lessons, Aika said she actually hoped that they were stricter.
“Minsan sinasabi namin sana naging strikto para (Sometimes, we say to her we wished you were stricter so) even in our age now, ‘yung mga nagawa natin before sana nacontinue or sana mas magaling pa kami (what we did before, we could’ve continued them or became better at them),” she said.
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Tricia said she believed that when someone is closely overseeing what you’re doing, you have no choice but to excel at it.
“And dahil iyon nakasanayan mo (And because that’s what you got used to) in the beginning, hanapan mo siya talaga ng paraan na may gawin ka about it (you will find a way to do something about it),” she added.