Robredo says there is need to discuss giving VP ‘bigger mandate’

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo stressed the need to discuss how to further widen the mandate of the country’s second highest official during her weekly radio show on Sunday.

Robredo said this during the last episode of her radio show “BISErbisyong Leni” before her term as Vice President ends on the 30th of June.

“Kailangan pag-isipan talaga kung papaano mas bibigyan ng mas malaking mandato ‘yung VP, kasi sayang kung halimbawa, kung ‘di ka masyadong naging creative, sayang ‘yung opisina,” she added.

(We really need to think about how to give the VP a bigger mandate because it would be a waste if, for example, if you fail to be creative, the office won’t be put to good use.)

She looked back with her own experiences, especially with how “she and her office were not treated as an ally and part of the government,” which she admitted wasn’t easy.

“Para sa’kin kailangan pagusapan siya kung paano bibigyan ng mas malaking espasyo [ang VP] para mas may magawa,” said Robredo.

(I think we need to talk about how to give the position a bigger space to do more.)

Meanwhile, despite the hardships and limitations she and her office faced as the Vice President, Robredo said they all look at it now as “blessings,” expressing gratitude with what they went through.

“Grabe ‘yung dinaanan namin, ayaw na namin ikwento ‘yung dinaanan kasi para sa’min ‘yun ‘yung blessing,” said Robredo.

(We went through a lot, but we don’t want to talk about what we had to go through because for us it was a blessing.)

“‘Yung kahirapan talaga ‘yun ‘yung blessing, syempre kung tatanungin kami sana hindi naging mahirap, pero ngayon na tapos na, pasalamat kami na naging mahirap kasi natututo kaming paghusayan lahat ng mahirap,” she added.

(The hardship was really the blessing. Of course if we had a choice, we wouldn’t have wanted it to become that difficult, but now that we are done, we are thankful because we learned how to do excellent work in difficult tasks.)

Robredo said that with the hardships, and despite the limits the Office of the Vice President faced, they were all able to perform as best as they could.

“Natuto kami maghanap ng paraan and to my mind, ‘yun ‘yung nagpahusay sa amin, kasi pag mahirap nagiging mahusay ka eh, ‘pag mahirap naghahanap ka ng paraan,” she said.

(We learned how to find a way and to my mind, that’s what made us better, because when it’s hard, you become better; when it’s hard, you find a way.)

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