A sea of pink welcomes Robredo in Cebu

Throngs of people join the People’s Rally of Vice President and presidential candidate Leni Robredo in Cebu City. (NESTLE SEMILLA/INQUIRER VISAYAS)

CEBU CITY — When she campaigned in Cebu in 2016, all she brought were promises.

Six years later, Vice President Leni Robredo came back to the country’s most vote-rich province to report everything she accomplished.

“In 2016, I came here and made promises without receipts. At that time, everything I said to the Cebuanos were just promises. Now, I have receipts and have been following through on my promises. I haven’t neglected Cebu in my almost six years as vice president,” she said.

Robredo, now a presidential candidate, was hopeful that Cebuanos would again support her bid for the country’s top position.

Clad in pink shirts, at least 10,000 supporters welcomed her on Thursday, enough to fill the Southwestern University-Phinma High School grounds.

She arrived at past 6 p.m. together with her running mate, Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan.

Earlier in the day, Robredo visited Argao town as well as the cities of Talisay and Toledo where they conducted what they called the People’s Rally.

In the road leading to the university, some “festival queens” danced the Sinulog while chanting “Pit Senyor! Kay Leni kini,” a popular introit imploring the Sto. Niño de Cebu or the Child Jesus to bless a particular person.

Before the event ended, local organizers and volunteers gave Robredo an image of the Sto. Niño de Cebu to remind of the place she considered special.

According to the Office of the Vice President (OVP), Robredo has implemented a total of 276 projects in 41 local governments in Cebu worth P59.3 million.

The OVP also distributed P20 million to three hospitals in the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, and Talisay as part of its Medical Assistance program, as well as 370 sacks of rice worth over P190,000 to Cebu City’s homeless as part of its relief assistance initiative.

In the aftermath of Typhoon Odette last December 2021, Robredo visited Cebu less than 48 hours after the storm hit. The OVP provided affected families in Cebu and other hard-hit provinces in Visayas and Mindanao with shelter repair kits, which they can use to begin rebuilding their homes.

Robredo also helped in job-generating initiatives such as supporting Cebu City’s business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, and developing eco-tourism projects.

According to the Commission on Elections, Cebu, including the highly urbanized cities of Cebu, Mandaue, and Lapu-Lapu, is the most vote-rich province in the country with about 3.3 million voters.

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