Robredo to voters: Keep the gifts, follow your heart

Liberal Party’s bet for Vice President, Leni Robredo. File photo

Keep the gifts, but follow your heart.

Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo gave this piece of advice to voters as the administration vice presidential aspirant recalled her improbable landslide win against her moneyed rival in the 2013 elections.

“My victory made me realize that money alone does not determine the outcome of an election,” Robredo told an enthusiastic audience in Barangay Payatas, Quezon City, on Thursday night.

The female-dominated crowd gathered for the launching of “QC Women for Leni,” a group spearheaded by Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte, one of Robredo’s ardent political supporters.

“You can take what the candidates would give you. Anyway, [those gifts] also came from us,” she said, eliciting chuckles from the crowd.

“I know that although voters receive what politicians give them, they would still vote who’s in their hearts. That’s what we should always remember,” she said.

Robredo, a lawyer, was forced to run as House representative following the tragic death of her husband, the late Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo, which caused a rift among their political allies.

Egged on by her late husband’s friends and supporters, among them President Aquino and her running mate Mar Roxas, Robredo agreed to lead the charge in ending the decades-long stranglehold of the powerful Villafuerte clan on the third congressional district of Camarines Sur.

Despite running her campaign on a shoestring budget, Robredo handily trounced her rival, Nelly Villafuerte, wife of then incumbent Rep. Luis Villafuerte, regarded as the political kingpin in the province.

In her speech, Robredo narrated how she had to wake up as early as 5 a.m. to do house-to-house visits to reach out to voters in 186 villages. She said her daily campaign would usually end by midnight.

“Do you know what my rival did? She would go to the areas I visited and would bring along a music band, dancers, singers and even gifts for raffle,” she said.

“There was a time when I looked outside our window and saw thousands of people attending my rival’s political rally. I told myself there was no way I would win. But you know what happened? I got 80 percent of the total votes cast,” she said.

According to Robredo, the memories of her husband and her unlikely victory had been her inspiration as she set out for an even more strenuous campaign to win the second highest elective post in the May elections.

Robredo, who has consistently surged in the recent surveys of voters’ preference for the next vice president, said the warm reception she had been getting in political gatherings organized by her supporters had also given her hope to take on the challenges ahead.