Leni Robredo to spice up vice presidential race — Joey Salceda

Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo. FILE PHOTO

The vice presidential race will just be as exciting as the fight for the presidency in 2016 when Camarines Sur Representative Leni Robredo is officially declared as the running mate of Liberal Party (LP) standard-bearer Mar Roxas.

This was the assessment of Albay Gov. Joey Salceda, LP provincial chair, as the party held on Wednesday its National Executive Council (NECO) meeting at its Balay Headquarters in Quezon City.

“The presidential race usually gives flavor to the VP (vice presidential) race. But this (time) the VP race will have a flavor of its own so that makes the 2016 (elections) very exciting,” Salceda said.

At press time, President Aquino was presiding over the NECO where party members would officially nominate Roxas as the party’s candidate for president.

There was no word yet if Robredo would be or had been nominated. The meeting was closed to the media, which staked out the meeting from an adjacent room.

Earlier reports said the widow of LP stalwart Jesse Robredo had yet to make up her mind.

However, other party leaders have as much declared her to be the Liberal Party’s candidate for vice president.

Salceda said Robredo was the “saint among the brains” in the vice presidential race.

He noted that other vice presidential candidates like Senators Francis Escudero, Alan Peter Cayetano, and even Antonio Trillanes IV, act as the “strategists” for the presidential candidates they are supporting.

“But in our case, it’s the other way around. It is Roxas who is the brains and Robredo provides the moral moorings, so to speak,” Salceda said.

Salceda added that Robredo wears the “Jesse halo,” referring to her late husband.

Moreover, Salceda said, Leni Robredo herself is “socially oriented,” including women and human rights issues.

“The VP race shows that the vice president is no longer a spare tire. Before it was known as the supporting role and that the VP is the spare tire. Now the VP is the stepping-stone to the Presidency. It is a conscious and deliberate target to be President. Except Leni, all of them want to be President,” Salceda said. CB

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