Vice President Leni Robredo Iloilo Stationary Caravan | OVP Photo
BACOLOD CITY — The battle for the presidency may be uphill.
But Vice President and presidential candidate Leni Robredo remains hopeful that she could pull off a surprise in the May 9 elections.
“This is a very uphill battle but if we win this, imagine the kind of message that we will send. Let’s have a good fight. Let’s finish the race and continue to keep the faith,” she told the gathering of 1,500 volunteers from various sectoral groups in Negros Occidental at the Convention Hall of Acacia Hotel in Bacolod City on May 3.
Former governor Rafael Coscolluela, head of the Robredo People’s Council Negros Occidental, assured Robredo and Pangilinan of their full support and total commitment.
“We will win this,” he said which prompted the audience to chant “Leni, Leni, Leni.”
Robredo was joined by senatorial candidates Chel Diokno, Alex Lacson, Risa Hontiveros, Sonny Matula, and Neri Colmenares in Negros.
Negros Occidental was the fourth province in Western Visayas that Robredo visited on Tuesday after going to Aklan, Antique, and Iloilo.
Robredo thanked her supporters in Negros Occidental and Bacolod City for all their help and hardwork in campaigning for her, Pangilinan and the rest of the team. “People are just so hungry for change and want to fight for this country. For change to happen, we must realize that power is really in the hands of the people,” she said.
In Iloilo, Robredo was welcomed by about 50,000 Ilonggos on Tuesday amid Ati-atihan drum-beatings in a massive outpouring of support less than a week before the presidential elections.
“Ihirit pa natin. Konting tumbling na lang. ‘Pag hinusayan natin, ang susunod na pagbalik ko dito, magpapahatid na ako sa Malacañang. (Some more acrobatics and we’re there. If we do good, the next time I’ll be here, I’ll be asking you to bring me to Malacañang),” Robredo told cheering supporters at the La Paz public plaza here.
Her voice was noticeably hoarse, apparently from the non-stop campaign sorties.
Shouting: “Never again!”, Robredo’s supporters repeatedly chanted her name, just two months after more than 40,000 joined her and running mate Sen. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan in a rally at the Iloilo Sports Complex.
Ilonggo leaders who have declared support for Robredo joined her from her sorties in the neighboring provinces of Aklan and Antique including Sen. Franklin Drilon, Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas, and Iloilo Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr., among others.
Treñas estimated those who lined up along the streets and the crowd at the plaza at about 50,000.
“A vote for Leni is not for her interest but is a vote for good governance. It is a vote for the oppressed, a vote for the victims of human rights, a vote for the poor, hungry and the sick,” former Iloilo governor Arthur Defensor said in an emotional speech.
Defensor was former commissioner of the Presidential Commission on Good Government, which was tasked to recover the ill-gotten wealth of the family and cronies of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos whose only son, former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., is running for president.
“If you vote for Marcos, it is a vote for the possible restoration of dictatorship,” Defensor, who has retired from politics, said.
Robredo thanked Ilonggos for their support as she urged them to continue campaigning harder in the final stretch of the campaign period.
“Let us destroy the lies with the truth,” she said, citing the proliferation of disinformation especially during the election period.
She also visited the capital town of Kalibo in Aklan on Tuesday morning where she thanked about 9,000 supporters in a rally at the Northwestern Visayas College campus.
“We are in the homestretch of the campaign…We came back to thank you. In 2016 (vice presidential elections), you gave me a big victory here…I hope you will double the votes that you gave me in 2016,” Robredo told cheering and shouting supporters at the Northwestern Visayas College in the capital town of Kalibo in Aklan.
“Of all the campaigns I have undergone, this is the happiest campaign… You have remained undaunted despite all the odds against us,” she said.
Robredo said that while only a few local officials have openly supported her, her volunteers have been untiringly campaigning for her.
“You are all standing up so that you will have the government that you deserve,” she said.
From Aklan, Robredo proceeded to Tibiao town in neighboring Antique province where she spoke before 5,000 supporters at the municipal plaza. She was scheduled to also meet with supporters in Bago City in Negros Occidental before attending mass proclamation rallies in Bacolod City.
Robredo trounced Marcos in the city and province of Iloilo in the 2016 vice presidential race. She garnered 706,052 votes, while former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. got 127,434 votes in Iloilo province.
She also won over Marcos by a wide margin in Iloilo City garnering 137,662 votes against Marcos’ 33,778 votes./with reports from John Noel Herrera, Inquirer Visayas