Abalos, Revilla also see Robredo after Sara visit

NO POLITICS, THEY SAID Former Vice President Leni Robredo welcomes Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos Jr. and Sen. Bong Revilla at her home in Naga City on Saturday, the last day of the Feast of Our Lady of Peñafrancia. —Krixia Subingsubing

NAGA CITY, CAMARINES SUR, Philippines — There’s nothing like a Filipino fiesta to get political tongues wagging.

Following Vice President Sara Duterte’s visit on Friday, Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos Jr. and Sen. Bong Revilla on Saturday also visited former Vice President Leni Robredo at her home in Naga City, Camarines Sur.

Explaining their visit, Robredo told reporters that she was only following the tradition of her late husband, Jesse Robredo, who welcomed people visiting Naga City to pay homage to “Ina” (mother). The former vice president was referring to what she called the “politically neutral” annual feast of Our Lady of Peñafrancia which culminated on Saturday.

READ: VP Sara Duterte visited Leni Robredo in Naga, Gutierrez confirms

Robredo’s husband was Naga mayor for almost two decades since 1988 before serving President Benigno Aquino III as his interior secretary. Jesse Robredo died in 2012 and Aquino, in 2021.

Trending topic

“Whenever it’s Peñafrancia, there’s no political color, no party, it’s politically neutral. Everyone who wants to come see Ina are very much welcome here,” Robredo said.

Still the VIP visits made the former vice president a trending topic on social media and online political punditry on Saturday.

Abalos and Revilla arrived separately, ahead of the procession for the patroness of the Bicol region.

It was the last day of the weeklong feast, which would see the image of the Virgin returned to her shrine following the Naga River route.

Abalos, who is reportedly planning to run for senator in next year’s midterm elections, also said there was no politics in his visit as he wanted to pay homage to Ina.

‘Casual meeting’

Revilla said his visit was part of his longtime devotion to Ina which began with his mother.

Regarding Duterte’s visit, the Office of the Vice President (OVP) issued a statement late on Friday saying that she was “excited to experience her first-ever Peñafrancia fiesta.”

The OVP said Duterte was “invited by a Bicolano friend to attend the centennial anniversary Mass of the Canonical Coronation of Our Lady of Peñafrancia on Sept. 20,” although she was no longer in Naga City by that day.

“The same friend also arranged a casual meeting with former Vice President Leni Robredo,” the OVP said.

It added that “during her stay in Naga, Vice President Duterte visited several prominent Bicol personalities and heard [M]ass with ordinary Bicolanos.” Duterte “neither looked desperate nor distressed,” the statement said, apparently referring to comments on social media about her visit to her predecessor.

In 2015, Robredo, then a congresswoman and vice presidential candidate of the Liberal Party, visited Duterte in Davao City and the two even had lunch at a carinderia.

‘Old friends’

Duterte was then planning to run for mayor since his father Rodrigo, the incumbent mayor, was already being persuaded by his supporters to run for president.

The two women said they didn’t talk about politics and were simply catching up with each other as “old friends.”

Robredo later became critical of President Duterte and his daughter, in turn, called her a “fake VP,” referring to the electoral protests filed by Robredo’s vice presidential rival, Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Marcos and Duterte would thereafter form an alliance that helped secure their victory in the 2022 presidential and vice presidential contests. But the two have since become estranged in just two years of their alliance.

‘Not political’

Robredo on Friday also issued a statement about her successor’s visit.

“While she was in Naga City for the Peñafrancia Festival, VP Sara Duterte took the opportunity to visit me at my home,” she simply said.

Lawyer Barry Gutierrez, Robredo’s former spokesperson in the Office of the Vice President, said earlier that her hourlong meeting with Duterte was “personal and not political.”