Aquino, Roxas, Cabinet to visit Robredo tomb

Jesse Robredo FILE PHOTO

President Benigno Aquino III and members of his Cabinet, including Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, will visit the tomb of Jesse Robredo in Naga City on Aug. 18 to mark his third death anniversary.

“The President saw it fit to visit Jesse’s grave with the Cabinet members as this is the last year of the administration, [which should still include] Jesse had tragedy not struck,” presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda told the Inquirer yesterday.

Robredo was Mr. Aquino’s interior secretary until his death on Aug. 18, 2012.

Robredo was on his way back to Naga from a speaking engagement in Cebu City when his light chartered plane crashed into the sea off Masbate City.

Signal to Leni Robredo and the two pilots died. Only Robredo’s police bodyguard survived.

President Aquino later appointed Roxas, then the transportation secretary, to replace Robredo at the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

Although Malacañang wants to shield the Aug. 18 event from politics as it is meant to be a tribute to Robredo, it could be seen as sending a signal to his widow, Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo, that she is considered a viable vice-presidential running mate for Roxas in next year’s national elections.

A Liberal Party member told the Inquirer that the visit of the President and his entourage to Jesse’s grave is “almost like showing Leni how much she is a part of the team, and potentially as Mar’s Vice President.”

The source asked not to be identified for lack of authority to talk about the party’s plans should Sen. Grace Poe finally decline President Aquino’s offer for her to be Roxas’ running mate.

Both Roxas and Leni Robredo have “very much embraced President Aquino’s daang matuwid (straight path) platform of good government, the source said.

The source also said Roxas and Leni Robredo shared the same “narrative”: they were forced into politics because of deaths in their families.

Roxas’ brother, Gerardo Roxas Jr., was being groomed to carry on the legacies of their father and grandfather when he died of cancer at the age of 32 in 1993.

After her husband’s death, Leni Robredo ran for the House of Representatives to break the political dynasty in the province and to maintain the unity of Jesse’s political supporters.

The source did not mention it but President Aquino went through the same predicament after his mother, democracy icon former President Corazon Aquino, died in 2009, giving rise to calls for him to run for President in 2010.

House or Senate

The Inquirer source acknowledged that Leni Robredo appears to be not interested to run for Vice President.

Robredo earlier told reporters that she would either seek reelection or run for senator in 2016.

She also did not attend last week’s launch of a movement, formed by her husband’s friends and supporters, to convince her to run for Vice President.

“Let’s wait and see how things would turn out,” the source said.

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