More on why Leni must run for President

By Herbert Vego

IN my previous column, I expressed strong belief that if she decides to run again for President, now Naga City Mayor Leni Robredo would win, since she had been deprived of that position because of the questionable win of the “uniteam” of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio in 2022.

Based on their number of votes Marcos’ 31,629,783 was more than twice that of Robredo’s 15,035,773.  How could that be when he had lost to her three years earlier?

Three years earlier, Robredo had beaten Marcos for the vice-presidency with 14,418,817 and 14,155,344 votes, respectively.

That means a margin of more than 263,473 votes.

Marcos challenged that “wrong count” by filing a ₱66-million election protest before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), which entailed a manual recount of over 39,000 clustered precincts in the provinces of Negros Oriental, Iloilo, and Camarines Sur.

Ironically as a result, Robredo’s lead in those three provinces increased by some 15,000 votes.

Robredo’s running mate Mar Roxas, however, lost the presidential race to Sara Duterte.

In that period of three years (2016 to 2022), Vice President Leni Robredo did more than work peacefully with President Rodrigo Duterte. She transformed the Office of the Vice President (OVP) from a ceremonial role into an advocacy-centered institution. Her Angat Buhay program mobilized over ₱520 million in aid, largely through donations from the private sector, for public education, rural development, food security and nutrition, women empowerment, universal healthcare, and housing.

In the same three-year period, private citizen Bongbong had no involvement in public service.

So, what made him suddenly more attractive to the voters than VP Leni in the 2022 presidential race, where he bagged 31,629,783 votes against her 15,035,773?

VP Leni could have protested but refrained, probably because it was good enough for her that President Duterte was on the way out.

Even more mind-boggling was the bigger number of votes for Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, his vice-presidential running mate, who scored 32,208,417 — unprecedented in the history of national elections; and unlikely because she had not previously run for any national position.

Amazingly, she clobbered Robredo’s running mate, Francisco “Kiko” Pangilinan, who got only 9,329,207 despite the fact that he had by then served three senatorial terms.

If Inday Sara knew that she was more popular than Bongbong, why did she not run against him for president rather than slide down.

I said “slide down” because, as early as the third quarter of 2021, streamers screaming “Run, Sara, Run” with her picture and Senator Bong Go’s were already well-posted nationwide, giving the impression that they would team up for the top two posts.

Moreover, her dad, outgoing President Duterte, had been deriding Marcos as a “weak leader”.

Anyway, the Marcos-Sara “uniteam” was also good for 11 elected senators, namely Robin Padilla, Loren Legarda, Raffy Tulfo, Win Gatchalian, Chiz Escudero, Mark Villar, Alan Peter Cayetano, Migz Zubiri, Joel Villanueva, JV Ejercito, Risa Hontiveros, and Jinggoy Estrada.

Of the 12 winners, only Hontiveros was a known critic of Pres. Duterte.

Among the unlikely losers were former Vice President Jojo Binay, former Senators Antonio Trillanes, Richard Gordon and the jailed Leila De Lima.

All three senators had lambasted Tatay Digong for reasons we are now familiar with.

Because of those hard-to-swallow turnouts, I believe that a powerful clique had rigged the polls to favor the Marcos-Duterte “uniteam”.

Let Mayor Leni heed the snowballing demand for her to run again for president in 2028, maybe this time with the support of BBM.