I won’t be scheming VP–Leni Robredo

CAMARINES Sur Rep. Leni Robredo will not be a “scheming and ambitious” Vice President should she win next year because it would not be good for the country.

Instead, Robredo said, she would be ready to take over from the President in case the Chief Executive became incapacitated because this was part of the job description.

“If I we’re elected Vice President, it’s not good to get ambitious about being President. It’s not a case of us praying that something will happen to him or her (President), it’s not about you looking forward to the next election and running for President. If that happens, you will be tempted to use your position to campaign,” she said.

At yesterday’s Ugnayan sa Batasan forum, Robredo said: “The advantages of being in office will just go to waste. You can do a lot, you can have a lot of important advocacies that you can push, especially if you’re not thinking about politics or the next election.”

She said that if the Vice President was only focused on the next election, “you’d measure everything you do in terms of how these would translate to votes.”

“I don’t think it would be fair to the nation if the Vice President who is just elected is already desiring to be the next President.”

If she wins next year, Robredo said she wouldn’t want a Cabinet portfolio but would want to head a flagship program focusing on antipoverty, food security and employment.

“Food security is more than the Department of Agriculture because it also means taking care of hunger and poverty. Agriculture is only a means to combat that,” she said.

She said she wanted voters to associate her with her grassroots experience helping the poor and not to paint a false picture made up by image makers to win votes.

She said that one of her advisers, Sen. Sergio Osmeña III, agreed she should capitalize on her assets because that would be easier to sell.

Robredo said she had been told by her advisers to smile more because even though her friends think she is kind-hearted, “they tell me that I look like a kontrabida (villain).”

“That’s why when I’m alone at home, I practice how to smile when I’m resting. But I feel loony doing it,” she said.

But Robredo said that, at this point, she did not want to be too confident of her and Liberal Party standard-bearer Mar Roxas’ chances in May next year.

“For me, it’s anyone’s game. We have seven months to go and being confident about winning the elections is farthest from my mind. I always think I am at a disadvantage,” she said.