Leni and Sara Duterte: Friendship beyond politics

DAVAO CITY—“I hope politics will not ruin our friendship,” said Liberal Party candidate for vice president Leni Robredo of former Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte during a brief visit here on Tuesday.

Robredo was here to attend a forum with farmers and fishers affiliated with the Mindanao Coalition of Development NGO Network and the Agri-Aqua Development Coalition in Mindanao.

“Magkaibigan kami (We’re friends),” Robredo told reporters of the daughter of presidential aspirant Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. “Even before, when I come [to Davao], I always find time to talk to her. She was mayor when my husband was DILG (Department of the Interior and Local Government) secretary. So we’re friends,” she said.

Robredo, who had a quick lunch with the younger Duterte in an eatery outside the gate of the Davao Medical School Foundation (DMSF), said her meeting with the younger Duterte was “purely personal” and had nothing to do with politics.

Just like saying hi

“It’s personal, it’s just like saying hi,” she said, when asked whether the younger Duterte will support her vice presidential bid under the Liberal Party, whose standard bearer Mar Roxas recently had a word war with her father.

“When I first met her, we were talking about my husband, who just died and she said she was thankful for all the help she got [from him],” Robredo said, still referring to the younger Duterte.

“On my part, I talked about a lot of good works that she has been doing which were noticed by my husband (Jesse Robredo), because he used to be so appreciative not only toward Mayor Sara, but also toward Mayor Digong. Sana di masira ng pulitika (I hope politics will not ruin it).”

She said she does not think the raging verbal exchange between the elder Duterte and Liberal Party standard bearer Mar Roxas will affect her. “Sana, wala naman, hindi namin napag-uusapan (I hope not, we never talked about it).

But Robredo said she felt awkward about reports that some groups have been pushing for a Rodrigo Duterte-Robredo (Ro-Ro) tandem in Davao City, saying that although she would welcome any support she can get, she should respect the sensitivity of her party, which is supporting Roxas for president.

“Of course, I thank them for their support, but that would be a very difficult question for me to answer because in the same manner that Mayor Digong is supporting his own vice president, I am also supporting my party’s presidential bet, and I am careful not to hurt the sensitivities of people I work with.”

Work double time

Robredo admitted working double time to introduce herself to voters in Mindanao, since, among the vice presidential bets, she is the only one running for a national position for the first time.

“If this were a marathon, I have to work double time as a sprinter, so that I can catch up,” she said.

Robredo, who spent 10 years as a lawyer for the alternative group Saligan before she was forced into politics after the death of her husband, told fishers and farmer leaders of Mincode, the largest NGO network in Mindanao, that if given the chance to sit as vice president, she would prefer to work in the anti-poverty flagship project of the next administration, to converge and streamline all assistance that the government has been giving to the poor.

She said that because it’s an antipoverty program, it should be treated as “urgent,” hence, the processing for assistance should be streamlined and should be converged under one department and not by different agencies that involves a long and tortuous processing. Germelina Lacorte, Inquirer Mindanao