An aerial view of the Robredo-Pangilinan grand rally held on Wednesday, March 23, 2022, in Tarlac City. (Photo from the Facebook of VP Leni Robredo)
DAVAO CITY, Davao del Sur, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo sought support for her presidential bid on Wednesday in Tarlac, a bailiwick of the Aquino political clan and a vote-rich province, in an effort to close the gap with the survey leader, former Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
As part of her Central Luzon tours, Robredo, along with running mate Sen. Francis Pangilinan, visited four Tarlac towns — Capas, Gerona, Moncada, and Santa Ignacia — before capping the visit with a grand rally in the provincial capital, Tarlac City.
Speaking before a crowd of around 50,000 in Tarlac City, she shared her dreams for the provinces, including modernizing the methods of its farmers.
“Here in Tarlac, what’s our dream and promise to you? First of all, our 100-percent support for New Clark City, which includes Capas and Bamban, so that we can create many jobs for you,” Robredo said in Filipino.
“[We will] support modernizing agriculture and other things because this will help your province transform more. Here in Tarlac City, what have you long been dreaming of? Your own hospital. Tarlac City dreams of having its own hospital. And we promise that, if you help us, we will make sure that you will achieve your dream,” she went on.
Robredo stressed that these were not mere promises. The Office of the Vice President, she pointed out, had shown through its initiatives what it could do, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vice President Leni Robredo talks to a crowd of an estimated 50,000 supporters in Tarlac City. Tarlac province was the only place in Central Luzon where she won in the 2016 elections against former Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (Photo from her Faceboook page)
“Here in Tarlac, our office, with or without elections, have programs. Earlier, I was saying — when Kris [Aquino] was still here — that a Vaccine Express was set up in Capas,” she said.
The actress Kris Aquino, the youngest sister of the late President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, and Angel Locsin had earlier endorsed Robredo’s presidential bid.
“We vaccinated our Aeta siblings — and we not only vaccinated them but also gave aid to ease their daily suffering. We also opened a Community Learning Hub so that even with the school closed students would have a place to go with gadgets, with tutors,” Robredo added.
Despite not getting the endorsement of the entire province, she remained upbeat that she could win there, noting that its residents had been known as intelligent voters who picked good candidates.
Robredo said that Tarlac’s preference for Noynoy Aquino was enough to show how Tarlaqueños valued a better government.
“We’re all looking for President Noy. In the last rally I attended here, I was with him near the [Provincial] Capitol. Now he’s gone. But I hope we can all put into action the lessons of his life — being simple, being clean, being competent as public servants,” she said.
“When you helped me win here [in the 2016 elections], you still did not know me well. I still had no receipts [that is, accomplishments] to show you then. Now, I’m more confident in asking for your help because I can look at you straight in the eye. I can tell you that everything I promised I fulfilled,” she added.
In the 2016 vice presidential race, Robredo lost to Marcos in every province in Central Luzon — except for Tarlac. Overall, Robredo lost by over 802,000 votes to Marcos, but in Tarlac she won by 29,590 votes.
Tarlac is the 15th most vote-rich province nationwide with over 898,000 voters registered for the 2022 national elections.
Robredo would need all endorsements she could muster from the provinces. Recent surveys point a Marcos victory, with the son of the late President Ferdinand Marcos holding a big lead over her.
According to Pulse Asia’s latest survey conducted from Feb. 18 to 23, Marcos has 60 percent of the votes, with Robredo only having 15 percent.
However, Robredo’s ally, former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, claimed that she had been closing the gap with a massive ground swell of support building up for her.
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