Presidential aspirant Vice President Leni Robredo is banking on her flagship anti-poverty program, Angat Buhay, to steamroll her presidential campaign and by doing on-the-ground campaigning.
But because of the pandemic, this on-the-ground and face-to-face campaigning need to be conducted virtually for now with Robredo and her running mate Senator Francis 'Kiko' Pangilinan inviting supporters and sectoral groups for Zoom meet-ups.
The Vice President shared that their “common tagline” will be “Gobyernong Tapat, Angat Buhay Lahat.”
Despite earlier difficulties in organizing her kakampinks, a combination of the words “kakampi (ally)” and her campaign color pink, Robredo said her Robredo’s People Council networks will now have one unifying message to distribute.
“Ngayon na mas organized na sila (Now that they are more organized) under one umbrella, mas magiging madali na sa amin ‘yung (it will be easier for us the) distribution ng (of) message. Pero pinag-usapan din namin na dahil (But we are also talking about that since they are) independent naman ‘yung mga grupong ito, bigyan pa din sila (let’s give them) as much elbow room as possible na mag-plano kung ano ang gagawin (to plan what needs to be done),” she said during a virtual meet-up with reporters on Tuesday, Jan. 11.
The most challenging aspect of the campaign for Team Robredo would be the distribution of their message since the “other camp” has saturated social media.
READ: ‘Robredo’s People Council’ formed to organize her supporters, volunteers
She doesn’t think they need to do branding in terms of her leadership qualities nor to develop a storyline that “will fit into the leadership narrative.”
Robredo is confident that she has enough “receipts” based on what the Office of the Vice President (OVP) has done in the past five-and-a-half years.
As the campaign season officially starts on February 8, the presidential aspirant said that they will do one-on-one campaigning on the ground though this will be virtual for now because of the surge in COVID-19 cases.
Her volunteers have been doing the work on the ground with most of them organizing activities that will open opportunities for them to introduce Robredo to voters.
The Vice President recognized the strength of former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s campaign.
Without mentioning his name, Robredo said it is hard to defeat her rival using conventional campaigning because they have all the “ingredients” of a “strong campaign.”
READ: Marcos most preferred 2022 presidential pick in Pulse Asia survey
She identified “resources, machinery, and political minds” as her rival’s campaign strengths.
“Ang paniniwala namin, matitibag lang natin ito kapag ang taong bayan na mismo yung nagdesisyon na hindi nila ito papayagan (Our belief is that we will only defeat this if the people themselves decide that they will not allow it),” Robredo said.
In the latest Pulse Asia survey released on December 22 last year, Marcos topped the poll with 53 percent while Robredo is a far second with 20 percent.