With only 41 days left before the May 9 polls, Vice President Leni Robredo took her presidential campaign to the Marcos bailiwick of Leyte province, where she lost massively in the 2016 vice presidential race against former Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
The irony of visiting a province ruled by Marcos' kin, the Romualdezes, is not lost on Robredo, who reminded the crowd that gathered at the Boy Scout Monument in Palo Government Center in Palo, Leyte of her losing campaign effort in the province in 2016.
Marcos’ mother, Imelda Romualdez Marcos, is originally from Leyte before meeting and marrying former President Ferdinand Marcos.
For the Vice President, hometowns should not be the determinant of why voters should vote for a particular candidate, adding that she told her fellow Bicolanos the same thing.
“Sana hindi niyo ako bobotohan dahil Bicolano ako, pero bobotohan niyo ko dahil ang tinutulak kong klase ng pamahalaan, 'yung pamahalaan na gusto niyo (I hope you are not voting for me because I am Bicolano, but you are voting for me because the kind of government I am pushing for is the government you like),” she told thousands of her pink-clad supporters.
“Hindi po tama na bumuboto tayo dahil sa lugar na pinanggalingan natin (It is not right that we are voting according to the place we originated from),” Robredo added.
Noting that she lost massively during the 2016 vice-presidential race in Leyte, the aspiring president said this did not hinder her from extending help to Leyteños whenever they needed her in the past six years.
Even when she was still representative of the third district of Camarines Sur, she made sure to return to Leyte in the aftermath of Typhoon “Yolanda”.
“Noong 2016 elections po, alam niyo talo po ako dito sa inyo (During the 2016 elections, you know I lost here),” she said.
“Pero kaya ko lang naman 'yun sinasabi hindi sa akin mahalaga kung nanalo o natalo ako sa isang lugar dahil noong ako po nakaupo na bilang Vice President, wala na akong tiningnan na kulay. Basta kinakailangan ang aming tulong, andiyan po kami parati (But I’m just saying that, losing or winning in a place is not important to me because when I sat as Vice President, I did not look at the color. When our help is needed, we are there always),” Robredo added.
It’s not only during typhoons and disasters that she extended a helping hand.
Amid the pandemic, the Office of the Vice President (OVP) provided personal protective equipment (PPE), medical supplies, and dormitory for frontliners in the province.
She also implemented livelihood and medical assistance programs for two hospitals worth millions of pesos.
The lone female presidential candidate also took pride in not facing any corruption cases in her nine years of public office.
Even her running mate, Sen. Francis 'Kiko' Pangilinan, has a clean record of corruption.
“Pareho po kami ni Senator Kiko. Si Senator Kiko mas matagal na sa pamahalaan kaysa sa akin. Pero ni minsan, hindi nabahiran ang pangalan ng korapsyon (Senator Kiko and I are the same. Senator Kiko has been in government longer than me. But not even once, his name was not involved in corruption,” Robredo said.
The tandem also went to Biliran and Ormoc for their Eastern Visayas sortie. A grand rally is scheduled in Borongan, Eastern Samar tonight.
Jun Ocampo, head of the Robredo People’s Council (RPC) in Ormoc, spent most of the day putting the finishing touches to a makeshift stage and topping off a muddy abandoned sugarcane field with gravel.
The team had to make do after the Ormoc City Plaza they had originally planned to use suddenly became unavailable.
“Our event is called Piñakalig-on ang Ormoc,” he said, a reference to the small Ormoc pineapples which Ormocanons declare are the sweetest in the country.
“Lig-on means resilience, kasi lahat ng mga calamities nadaanan ng Ormoc (because all the calamities Ormoc went through). Typhoons, floods, flash floods, Yolanda, earthquake, even Odette. We always get back on track sa trabaho, sa negosyo. Kaya walang problema kahit maputik kasi sanay kami sa ganito (at work, in business. That’s why there’s no problem even if it’s muddy because we are used to this),” Ocampo said.