Sen. Serge Osmeña III. NOY MORCOSO III/INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
Camarines Sur Representative Leni Robredo’s chances of winning the vice presidential race in May would improve if she would be given a free hand to run her own campaign and develop her own message, Senator Serge Osmeña said on Thursday.
Osmeña, who admitted helping Robredo, believes that the vice presidential bet could overtake her rivals “if she’s given a free hand in running her own campaign.”
READ: Former Escudero ally Osmeña backs rival Robredo’s campaign
“Because the difficulty with Leni’s campaign is she’s subsumed with the campaign of Mar Roxas,” he said during a weekly forum in the Senate. Roxas is the administration’s bet for president in the upcoming elections in May.
“E magkaiba ang mensahe nila e. But, she is also using the Daang Matuwid, hindi naman iyan ang message ni Leni. So, that is her difficulty. Kaya nahihirapan siya to make off.”
(Their messages are different. But, she is also using the Daang Matuwid [Straight Path], that’s not Leni’s message. So, that is her difficulty. That’s why she finds it hard to make off.)
“They should allow her to develop her own message. Give her about a month. Then, later on, we could merge the two. But, the way it is going, talagang she is covered, parang may (it seems like there is a) shadow over her personality, because she has to play the role of a supporting actor to the Mar Roxas campaign,” the senator said.
Despite such, Osmeña believes that Robredo has been getting the necessary support from the administration.
In fact, he said, the vice presidential bet had already spent around P75 million to P85 million in television advertisements alone.
This was contrary to an earlier allegation that Roxas’ Liberal Party might drop Robredo supposedly because of her poor standing in the surveys.
READ: Will LP drop Robredo? Lacierda belies claims
“I think that is totally wrong. They will not dare do that,” Osmeña said when asked about the report.
“They will look very bad in the eyes of the public. Biro mo lahat ng mga pabor kay Leni, matatanggal sa column ni Mar Roxas (All who are in favor of Leni will be removed from Mar Roxas’ column), kaya I don’t think he wants that to happen,” he further said. RAM