Leni thanks Mocha for support after lead in Twitter poll

Vice President Leni Robredo (File photo by NIÑO JESUS ORBETA / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Vice President Leni Robredo has expressed thankfulness for diehard blogger Mocha Uson’s “show of support,” after the latter included her among the choices in a Twitter poll for the position of Department of Social Welfare and Development Secretary.

The final results of Uson’s Aug. 17 online poll, posted after the Commission on Appointments’ controversial rejection of Secretary Judy Taguiwalo, showed “Leni” garnering 81 percent of the 16,432 votes cast.

“[DSWD Assistant Secretary] Lorraine Badoy” and “[Monica] Prieto-Teodoro,” the wife of former Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, each won six percent and two percent of the votes, even less than the 11 percent cast for “Others (name pls).”

In her Sunday radio program “BISErbisyong Leni,” aired on RMN-dzXL 558 kHz, Robredo said she was “a bit surprised” that Uson, a staunch supporter of President Rodrigo Duterte, even included her name in the online poll.

SCREENGRAB FROM TWITTER

“Nagpapasalamat na din tayo kay Asec. Mocha Uson, na pagpapakita siguro na may tiwala na puwede tayong humawak ng ganiyang kabigat na puwesto (We are thanking Asec. Mocha Uson for showing perhaps that she believes we can hold such a vital position),” Robredo said.

But, she said she was even more grateful to those who voted for her in the said poll.

”Mas malaki sigurong pagpapasalamat sa mga nagpahayag na ako ‘yung preference nila, kasi pagpapakita na tinitiwalaan tayo sa ganitong larangan (I’m even more grateful to those who expressed their preference of me, because it shows they trust us in this field)” she said.

Robredo was a part of the Duterte Cabinet until Dec. 4, when she resigned from her position as head of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council after she was asked through text message to desist from attending meetings.

Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella said on Friday that “it seems it will be a difficult choice” to appoint Robredo as Taguiwalo’s replacement because “she has already resigned” from a Cabinet post in the past.

Uson, a celebrity dancer who used her blog to attack Duterte’s critics, was initially appointed to the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board in January. Four months later, she was appointed as assistant secretary for social media at the Presidential Communications Operations Office.

Duterte on May 10 admitted to giving Uson the high-paying government position out of “utang na loob (gratitude)” because her group “offered their services for free” during his campaign for the presidency.

In an Aug. 17 post on Facebook, Uson took exception to a News5 article’s head proclaiming the poll had “backfired.”

“Nag pa-survey lang ‘nag-backfire’ na??? Hindi ba pwedeng hindi lang biased??? Mmmmmm napapaghalataan na kayo News5 (Just because I held a survey, it ‘backfired’ already? Couldn’t it be that I’m not being biased? Mmmmmm, you’re being obvious, News5),” she said

Uson’s Twitter account carries the disclaimer that it is “my personal Twitter account” and her posts “represent my own views and not of the PCOO.” JE