LUCENA CITY, Quezon — A cheeky Vice President Leni Robredo on Thursday night couldn’t help but crack a joke that she would this early sit in Malacañang since her supporters were so eager to bring her to the presidency.
During the Quezonduan grand rally in this city, Robredo tried to pacify supporters who were giving her gifts even when she was still in the middle of her speech, joking that the crowd had not yet heard her platform.
“Maraming salamat, maraming salamat. Ang request lang po natin, ‘yong mga may binibigay, baka puwedeng ilagay ‘yung pangalan niyo saka email o telephone number. Para nakakapagpa-salamat kami ng maayos. Papasa na lang, papasa na lang. Mamaya po, mamaya. Hindi pa po ako tapos, hindi niyo pa alam kung anong gagawin ko pag nakaupo na ako,” Robredo said.
“Ayan, okay na ba? Okay na? Uupo na tuloy ako. Salamat. Uupo na tuloy ako sa Malacañang,” she added, to the delight of the 80,000-strong crowd.
Turning serious, Robredo said that there is still a lot more work to be done in the remaining days. This, despite that Robredo gained more support from allies and civil society groups, while her recent grand rallies have shown that she could bring in mammoth crowds.
“Nagmamadali kasi kayong ihatid ako eh, meron pa po tayong 11 days, hindi niyo pa ko puwedeng ihatid, magtatrabaho pa tayo. Hindi pa po tayo panalo. Kailangan pa po nating magpagod,” she said.
Robredo reminded her supporters, as she always did in almost all her speeches in campaign sorties, that while they have a chance to win, they must work hard for it. She said that it was imperative that they sustain this kind of energy for the remaining days until the May 9 elections, so that they can be victorious in the end.
She further urged her supporters to be more gentle in trying to convince people, especially those doing house-to-house campaigning, that voting for her is the right choice, stressing that the elections are not a fight between the candidates, but a battle for the country’s future.
“Ito po, ang pakiusap ko lang sa dati ng mga kasama. Ang pakiusap ko lang po, buksan natin ang ating mga puso dahil ang eleksyon pong ito, hindi lang ito laban naming mga kandidato. Pero ang eleksyon na ito, iba iba man ang ating mga paniniwala, kailangan magkaisa tayo para sa ating bansa,” she said.
“Kaya po habaan natin ang ating pag-unawa, habaan po natin ang ating pasensya, buksan natin ang ating mga puso, para iparamdam sa iba ang radikal na pagmamahal. Na iba man ang paniniwala, pare-pareho ang gusto nating mangyari sa ating bayan […] Kaya po, walang away-away,” she added.
With just a little over a week remaining before D-Day, Robredo still needs to bring her numbers closer to frontrunner Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., who in the latest surveys from Pulse Asia in March showed the vice president still trailing behind.
Robredo got 24 percent of the respondents’s votes, while Marcos had 56 percent — for a 32 point gap.
Still, Robredo’s supporters remain optimistic about their chances, noting that data from Google Trends show that the Vice President is the most-searched presidential candidate.