Robredo says heckling of daughter during Baguio sortie an ‘isolated case’

LUCENA CITY, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo believes the heckling her youngest daughter experienced at the Baguio City Public Market was just an isolated incident, which would not affect the camp’s campaign operations.

Robredo, in an ambush interview after the mini rally at Catanauan town in Quezon province  on Thursday, was asked on her comment in an incident where a passerby’s heckled Jillian Robredo for supposedly blocking pathways inside the market while they were doing face-to-face campaigns.

The Vice President said that the incident has not affected any of the younger Robredo’s activities in the area — and her potential trip to Baguio City on May 2.

“Ano naman yun, isolated incident, in fact marami syang events sa Baguio.  ‘Yon lang naman sa market nagkaron ng ganon na heckling pero the rest, ok naman.” Robredo told reporters.

“So hindi naman niya naapektuhan yung lakad, not just with Jillian pero ako yata pupunta din ako doon sa May 2,” she added.

Robredo also assured Baguio residents including Mayor Benjamin Magalong that the incident does not change her perception of Baguio as a place of loving and respectful people.

“Very unfortunate na nangyari, pero gaya ng sinabi ko sa message ko kay Mayor Magalong, kasi nag-apologize sya, nag-formal apology, hindi naman necessary pero ina-appreciate natin. Pabalik-balik naman ako sa Baguio, ‘yong aking pagmamahal at respeto sa mga taga Baguio ay hindi nabawasan no’n,” she said.

“So ‘yong assurance ko lang sa mga kasamahan natin doon, lalo yung volunteers kasi sila yung nagaapologize, absolutely no need to apologize,” she added.

Jillian was heckled during a face-to-face campaign in the market on Tuesday, with the woman stressing that Robredo’s daughter and her team are mere visitors in the area.

According to the Robredo People’s Council (RPC) chapter in Baguio City, they believe that the heckling may have been a coordinated activity — as the same incident already happened in the past to re-electionist and opposition Senator Risa Hontiveros when she also visited Baguio City last December 2021.

RPC also disputed social media posts claiming that Jillian aggressively engaged stall owners which led to such reactions.

“Such an unacceptable and coordinated operation has happened in the past, particularly to allies such as Sen. Risa Hontiveros when she was in the same area in December 2021.  It is unfortunate that it happened again to Ms. Jillian,” RPC Baguio’s official statement, which was posted on Facebook, said.

“The RPC house-to-house and Tao sa Tao campaigns are done to engage all the people kindly and with an open heart, whether or not they support VP Leni.  This was what Ms. Jillian was doing with our RPC volunteers.  Contrary to the posts online, she and her volunteers did their best to approach market-goers without being a bother to others,” RPC added.

Robredo’s daughters have been doing house-to-house campaigns to help the presidential bid of their mother, visiting areas that are not necessarily supportive of their camp.

In the 2016 vice presidential polls, Robredo — who squared against five other candidates including current presidential bet former senator Bongbong Marcos — lost big in the Cordillera Administrative Region.

According to numbers from the Commission on Elections, Marcos garnered 446,459 votes in the said region while Robredo only got 116,055 votes.

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Baguio mayor apologizes to Jillian Robredo for heckling incident

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