Once the reluctant candidate, Robredo now sees victory within grasp

From being a reluctant candidate, she’s now raring to win and the next vice president.

A confident Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo on Saturday claimed victory in the battle for the vice presidency, sending a firm message to her rivals barely three weeks ahead of the May 9 balloting.

Looking elegant in a yellow dress, she echoed the daring declaration of her running mate, Liberal Party (LP) standard-bearer Mar Roxas, in her speech at the Vice Presidential Forum held at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza Hotel in Pasay City.

Interestingly, Robredo was the only vice presidential candidate who showed up at the forum organized by the Rotary Club of the Philippines.

“(We’re) almost at the end of this long fight. I can tell you I’m excited to be your next vice president,” Robredo said, drawing loud cheers from the audience composed of Rotary members.

“I’m excited not for myself, but for all of those hoping to see real and sustainable change. I’m excited for the good that can be done if given the opportunity to serve,” she added.

On Thursday, Roxas made a bold prediction that he and Robredo would win the elections during a show of force  attended by President Aquino and other senior members of the LP and allied political parties in the Daang Matuwid Coalition.

After trailing behind her opponents in surveys for most of the campaign, Robredo said her steady rise  was the fruit of her and her supporters’ perseverance to make herself known to the voters as “more than just the widow” of the late Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo.

“I started on the campaign trail virtually an unknown. I have worked tirelessly to present myself as an alternative for the second highest position in the land, ” Robredo said.

“I may be new in politics, but I am a veteran in public service. I have dedicated my professional life as an alternative lawyer, working with and serving farmers, fisherfolk, abused women, laborers and others in the margins of society,” she said.

She also took the opportunity to thank the volunteers in her campaign team who “have given so much time and effort … without expecting anything in return.”

In her speech, Robredo stressed the need for the government to initiate programs to make the people have a “sense of ownership” of its governance agenda.

The citizens, she added, should not just be beneficiaries of the government’s projects, but its partners in implementing them.

As vice president, she said, she would devote her time to leading the government’s antipoverty programs, pointing to her decade-long experience as a social worker and lawyer for the poor in Albay.

“The solutions I know are those that come from the ground and have been tried and tested,” she said.

Robredo said she would push to streamline the government’s antipoverty and hunger-mitigation programs to expedite their implementation and ensure their success.

“I will be the kind of vice president who will always listen to everyone and respect everyone’s chance to be heard,” she said. “I will be the kind of vice president who will be inclusive because those who suffer are the ones who know exactly how to ease their suffering.”

Whoever would be the next occupant of Malacañang, Robredo said she would “complement” by being a “working vice president … dedicated to ensuring that every Filipino family is complete and lives with dignity.”

“But I hope (Roxas) would win,” she said. “We started in last place, now winning is finally within reach. With your help, we can make this happen.”

Speaking with reporters before the event, Robredo admitted she had yet to prepare for today’s vice presidential debate to be hosted by ABS-CBN because of her busy campaign schedule.

Asked if she would again pounce on Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., during the debate, Robredo said her attacks on the son and namesake of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos were not deliberate.

“If an opportunity comes up,” she said, “for me, it depends on what my opponents are saying. If they will make a claim which I think is not true, I will call their attention to it.”

“But if it’s not related to what they’re saying, then maybe I won’t. The election is not about mudslinging,” she added.

During the only Commission on Elections-sanctioned vice presidential debate held last week, Robredo and another rival, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, ganged up on Marcos for his connection to martial law.

“For me, I want to highlight my strengths rather than bank on the weaknesses of others,” Robredo said.