Despite her initial reluctance to run, Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo tells the INQUIRER in a recent interview that as a vice presidential contender, she is prepared to step up to the plate should circumstances warrant it. LYN RILLON
“IT CAME to a point that it was hard to explain. But I felt in my heart that it was something I was meant to be,” she said.
“It was like defying logic because when you use logic, all the reasons are there to say ‘no.’ My (survey) numbers are low, I’m not well-known (among voters), I have no resources, everybody was against it,” the Liberal Party’s reluctant vice presidential candidate Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo said.
Unlike her unexpected congressional attempt in 2013, Robredo said she was given three weeks to think about the LP’s invitation after Poe announced her own presidential aspiration on Sept. 16.
Initially, she asked herself repeatedly why the Aquino administration would want her to form a tandem with LP standard-bearer Mar Roxas when her experience in politics was “very limited” and she had never participated in a national campaign.
After all, she was just on her first term as Camarines Sur representative after putting an end to the decadeslong stranglehold of the influential Villafuerte political clan in their congressional district.
She was also mindful that her awareness among voters was low, as shown by surveys of voters’ preference for the next leaders of the country.
Prayers to late husband
Trying to make sense of the mounting pressure on her, Robredo said she actually prayed for her late husband Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo to speak to her even in her dreams.
“My first question was, why me? Of all the possible candidates, why me? I’m not popular. I also do not have resources, as in I cannot contribute even a little to my campaign.” she said.
Her daughters’ tears
According to Robredo, she started to entertain the possibility of throwing her hat in the vice presidential race when Roxas spoke to her and her three children.
Roxas, a close friend of Robredo’s late husband, led the search for her husband after the ill-fated chartered plane carrying the then interior secretary crashed into the waters off Masbate province.
In the days leading to her decision, Robredo said her house in Naga City became “very stormy” as she and her daughters would often break into tears when they discussed the matter.
A few days before she announced her candidacy on Oct. 5, she went home to Naga and again spoke with her children. At the time, her daughters had already decided to give their consent.
Roxas major factor
“They told me that they felt their father would also want them to be supportive of me,” she said. “So I called up (Roxas) and told him that my children were already allowing me.”
Asked if Roxas was a major factor in her decision, she said: “Yes. And it’s not only for me but also for my children.”
“If not for you, we would not have agreed,” Robredo recalled one of her daughters telling Roxas.
“My husband had trusted Roxas for so many years. I think my children trusted him because they know their father would not have easily trusted anyone. They thought he was deserving,” she added.
Symbol of good governance
It also helped that Mr. Aquino was able to answer all her questions and take away her doubts, including her poor showing in the surveys of vice presidential candidates.
She said the President explained to her why the LP leadership chose her.
“I told him all the reasons why I shouldn’t be the one but he answered them all why I should be the one. He answered even the questions of my children.”
According to Robredo, the President also noted that she could be a symbol of good governance, being the wife of Jesse, who was known for engaging the basic sectors in local governance, which won him a Ramon Magsaysay Award, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in Asia.
First time
“The President also noted my background in grassroots organizing which would complement Roxas’ experience (in national politics). He also told me there was still time to introduce myself to the public,” Robredo said.
For Robredo, the 2016 elections would offer the Filipino people a chance to continue the gains of the daang matuwid (right path), the Aquino administration’s centerpiece anticorruption agenda.
“This is the first time that the people are looking for the continuation of the administration’s policies and not to change it with something new. That only means (what) we did was right,” Robredo said.
“But we will not just continue what we have seen and felt. We will also strengthen and expand them … so that we will be able to shake even the bottom.”
Part of job description
Said Robredo: “All the people who really love me, including my constituents, did not want me to run. If there was pressure, it was really pressure for me to say ‘no.’ The strongest lobby group consisted of my three daughters, my mother and the siblings of my husband.”
She also sought the assistance of her spiritual advisers in coming up with a decision which, she said, became a very emotional moment for her and her family.
From a reluctant veep candidate for the 2016 elections, she is now prepared to be President—if necessary—should she win what is touted to be one of the hotly contested vice presidential races in the country’s history.
“If you run for Vice President, you should be ready to become President because that’s one of the job descriptions,” Robredo said.
“But it’s not something I wanted or wish for. When the opportunity presented itself and there was a call, it was difficult to resist,” she added.
“Being President is very difficult. All the blame and the problems of the country would be on you. It’s not something you would wish even to your worst enemy.”
Pressure from her children
Robredo said vying for the second highest elective position in the land was already “way beyond my wildest dreams.”
“It’s not as if I wanted this. Maybe because I’m the wife of my husband, my orientation was to be ready to make the sacrifice when need be,” she said in Filipino.
She dismissed insinuations that Roxas and President Aquino had forced her to run for Vice President, saying she actually had to hurdle “strong pressure” from her children, relatives and other close friends to shun the invitation from the LP.
Robredo became the LP’s most viable vice presidential candidate after Sen. Grace Poe spurned the administration party’s monthslong pursuit to convince the senator to team up with Roxas.
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