VICE President-elect Leni Robredo INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/ NIÑO JESUS ORBETA
VICE President-elect Leni Robredo on Monday apologized to her supporters who expressed alarm that she continued to take the bus on her long trips back to her hometown of Naga City from Manila and vice versa after her proclamation.
One of her female supporters aired this concern at Robredo’s first post-proclamation press conference held at the Andaya Hall at the House of Representatives.
“Many of us are concerned with your safety. Can you reconsider taking the bus? Or buy your own bus?” the unidentified female supporter made in the remark just as Robredo was wrapping up her news conference. Another woman chimed in: “We will contribute!”
Robredo, the country’s 14th Vice President and the second woman to be elected to the post, gave a sheepish smile.
“We already agreed to have security (escorts) on the bus to take precautions but in our next trips back home, we will think about (the transportation) more thoroughly. I apologize to all of you… I wanted to keep this last trip secret but it was still (publicized) and I received a lot of text messages scolding me because I still took the bus,” she said, still smiling.
Robredo took the bus and made the overnight trip from Naga and arrived in Manila early Monday morning, hours before her proclamation by Congress.
She had always taken the bus for the nearly 12-hour overnight trip from Naga City to Manila, even when her husband, Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo, was still alive.
Robredo continued the practice even after she was elected congresswoman of the third district of Camarines Sur.
Robredo said she did consider taking the plane to Naga last week for the birthday of her late husband. But the plane tickets cost P9,000 each and she had to pay for four tickets—hers and those of her three daughters. It cost too much, she said, that the amount was enough to rent an entire bus.
“I understand your concern and I thank all of you,” she said. Apparently still overwhelmed by her victory, Robredo said that she has yet to “internalize” her victory.
Robredo said that as she transitions from being congresswoman to vice president, she would take the bus less often but could not promise that she would completely abandon the mode of transportation that she has been used to.
“We will also explore other means of transportation,” she said.
“All this has not sunk in yet that’s why I am still hardheaded,” she said, drawing laughter from the crowd. “But I promise over time, that will also change.”
Robredo stressed: “But who I really am will not change.”