Leni celebrates VP win, Jesse’s birthday on same day

Incoming Vice President Leni Robredo. INQUIRER PHOTO

On her late husband’s birthday, administration candidate Leni Robredo won the vice presidency in a tight race.

“Grabe ’yung coincidence, pagkatapos ng misa saka namin nabalitaan na tapos na ang canvassing. Hindi namin inaasahan to. Akala ko nung una, matatapos ng first or second week of June. Parang napaka-swerte naman po, coincidental na natapos ito, birthday ng asawa ko,” she said in an interview on TV Patrol on Friday night.

READ: Leni Robredo is vice president

Robredo was in her hometown in Naga City for Jesse Robredo’s 58th birthday on Friday when she led the final and official count of the House of Representatives at 263,473 votes ahead of rival Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.

The neophyte lawmaker gathered a total of 14,418,817 votes.

“Napaka-meaningful na natapos siya sa birthday ng asawa ko,” she said.

It was her husband’s death that led her to politics. She ran for Congress in 2013 and toppled the Villafuerte clan after Jesse, former interior secretary, died in a plane crash in 2012.

Robredo was later invited by Liberal Party to be the running mate of standard-bearer Mar Roxas after their first choice Sen. Grace Poe decided to run for president.

READ: Duterte seals presidency in Congress official tally

The lawmaker had said that if it wasn’t for her husband’s death, she wouldn’t be in politics today. Her husband governed Naga for decades.

“Sabi ko isa lang papasok sa amin sa pulitika. Naiba ang lahat nung namatay ang asawa ko nung 2012. Nagkaroon lang kami ng problema nung 2013, parang out of the blue natulak akong kandidato na representative ng third district ng Camarines Sur. ’Yun nga parang napaka-imposible, lalo na ’yung vice president. Kung buhay ang asawa ko, siya lang ang nasa pulitika,” she said.

Earlier in the day, Robredo remembered her husband’s birthday by posting on Facebook a photo of them together: “Always and forever the better half of me. Happy birthday.”