Robredo roadshow continues in her native Bicol

OPENING ITINERARY: Supporters of Vice President Leni Robredo unfurl banners from a building and rain confetti on her motorcade on Wednesday as it passes through Gubat town in Sorsogon province, one of the first stops of her presidential campaign following her Feb. 8 proclamation rally in Naga City. Photo from VP Leni Media Bureau)

LEGAZPI CITY, Albay, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo continued barnstorming through her native Bicol on Wednesday, speaking in the local language, thanking her supporters for their “united stand” and saying that they would have no cause to be ashamed of her future governance as president.

From a rousing campaign kickoff in Naga City on Tuesday, Robredo and her running mate, Sen. Francisco “Kiko” Pangilinan, visited the provinces of Camarines Norte and Sorsogon before heading to Albay. Most of their senatorial candidates accompanied them.

“I can assure you that if you help me, whatever my husband started … I will continue, and to strengthen my governance so that you will not be ashamed of me,” she said, referencing her husband, the late Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo.

She thanked the officials of Albay who, she noted, were united in backing her presidential candidacy despite belonging to different parties.

Robredo emphasized the importance of a united stand in an interview on Monday, the eve of the start of the formal campaign period, saying it was “an opportunity for us to develop the region despite [differing] party affiliations.”

Albay Gov. Al Francis Bichara and Legazpi Mayor Noel Rosal, former allies and now political rivals, have declared support for Robredo.

Mayors in the province are backing her as well. “We are 100 percent for VP Leni as the next president of the republic,” said Mayor Das Maronilla, president of the League of Mayors in Albay.

‘Tsinelas leadership’

The Vice President continues to be guided by her husband 10 years after his death in an airplane crash.

She kicked off her presidential campaign in their hometown of Naga, where he served as mayor for three terms and where she herself began her political career. She told the Bicolanos that a victory for her would be a victory for the neglected region.

She promised to bring “tsinelas leadership”—the people-centered, grassroots governance that Jesse Robredo had embodied as Naga mayor and later as interior secretary—to Malacañang.

“We will put flip-flops on the government’s feet,” she said. “Under our leadership, the fringes will become the new center.”

Robredo did not mention her husband by name during her festive, two-hour proclamation rally on Tuesday. But her message was clear: If you vote for me, you vote for a government that is close to the people.

When she ran for vice president in 2016, Robredo invoked her husband’s “tsinelas leadership” as her guidepost toward consultative, participative governance.

Now, as she seeks the presidency, she is hammering on the same message: that to defeat the brand of politics dominating the country, Filipinos need to elect honest, lawful and accountable leaders who will put others first before their self-interests.

“We know the face of the old and rotten politics that we want to end,” she said in a forceful speech. “This is the kind of politics that will take selfies with you, dance and sing for you, hand you envelopes during the campaign. But amid all this, no matter how you work, your dreams fade farther and farther away.”

Track record

Robredo said this was her response to the problem: “We need to not just change the old names and faces, but to clip this kind of politics at its roots.”

To show that she was different from those who promise the same things every six years, she cited her track record as a human rights and labor lawyer and as a local public servant engaged in the same “tsinelas leadership” fostered by her husband.

She declared that her vision had been consistent since 2016: If elected, she will run a government that listens to the people and is responsive to their needs.

To this end, Robredo has laid out a comprehensive platform of governance focused on the economy, jobs creation, health and education, and geared toward addressing systemic ills and gaps.

Central to it is the demand that government agencies be accountable and just. If the government is honest, she said, then “angat buhay lahat (everyone’s lives will be uplifted).”

In Labo, Camarines Norte, on Wednesday, Robredo again raised the issue of track record in urging the people to elect capable and principled candidates.

“You should look at the track record of those who are courting your votes now. If they say, ‘I love the poor,’ how did they show it? If they say, ‘I’m not corrupt,’ just look at the people they are with,” she said.

4 million voters

Bicol, which includes the provinces of Camarines Norte and Sur, Albay, Sorsogon, Masbate and Catanduanes, is the Philippines’ sixth vote-richest region, with nearly 4 million registered voters.

“I decided to start the fight here in Bicol because this is where I was born, where I grew up, where I went to school, where I worked, where I married. And my three kids were born here. I think it is just right that it is you that I address first,” Robredo told her fellow Bicolanos.

The members of the Robredo-Pangilinan senatorial slate present were Chel Diokno, Teddy Baguilat, Sonny Trillanes, Alex Lacson, Sonny Matula, and Senators Richard Gordon and Risa Hontiveros.

The detained Sen. Leila de Lima was represented by her spokesperson, lawyer Dino de Leon.

On Monday, the BicoLENI movement initiated by businessman Noel de Luna, founder of the Kusog Bicolandia party list group, was launched. De Luna, who is challenging Rep. Gabriel Bordado of the Liberal Party, joined his opponent at the launch to show their unified support for the Robredo-Pangilinan tandem.

Similar support was also expressed in the Mindoro provinces. In San Jose, Occidental Mindoro, their supporters included the crew of the ship Gem-Ver that was hit by a Chinese vessel and abandoned in the West Philippine Sea in June 2019. Robredo was among those who immediately extended aid to the fishermen and their families.

In Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro, a hourlong human chain of lights parade (“Tanglaw sa Magandang Bukas”) took off from J.P. Rizal Street and proceeded to the seaport.

—WITH REPORTS FROM REY ANTHONY OSTRIA, MICHAEL JAUCIAN, MAR ARGUELLES, AND MADONNA T. VIROLA IN SOUTHERN LUZON AND MARLON RAMOS IN MANILA

READ: PH ‘needs a mother’: Naga supporters back Robredo for president