‘TSINELAS’ RUN
NAGACITY—Camarines SurRep. Leni Robredo said yesterday she was reluctant to run for senator or vice president for a compelling reason—her three daughters were against it.
Robredo said her daugthers—Jessica Marie or “Aika,” 27; Janine Patricia or “Tricia,” 21, and Jillian Therese, 15—did not want her to seek a higher post.
The three daughters had not wanted her to enter politics when she ran for the Camarines Sur third district congressional seat in 2013, recalled Leni. She was made to promise to serve only one term.
But they relented. Leni said her running for reelection was now acceptable to them.
Tricia said it did not turn out to be a big adjustment for them when Leni entered politics because all of them were born with their father, Jesse Robredo, already in politics. And like Jesse, Leni also shielded her daughters from political life.
At the Eternal Gardens here Tuesday night where she participated in the Neon Night Tsinelas Run in memory of her father, Tricia said she was in fact happy that her mother’s grief had been diverted to something more productive because she likes her work now.
Then Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo, who was also the longest serving mayor of Naga City (from 1988-1998 and from 2001-2010), died in a plane crash in Masbate on Aug. 18, 2012.
Seeing mom happy
“The biggest adjustment in our lives was losing our father. But seeing my mom happy (with her work as representative)... I think she is really good at it though—being with the people, seeing how it is done, doing what my dad used to do,” Tricia said.
“Kaya po hindi naman ganoon kasama ang loob ko like three years ago nang pinasok niya (Leni) ang politika, kasi nakikita ko na nakakatulong siya (That’s why I don’t feel as bad as I did three years ago when she first entered politics because I can see that she is helping a lot of people),” Tricia said.
But for their mother to become a senator or vice president would be “something big that we don’t want to happen,” Tricia earlier told the INQUIRER.
“We thought that after my mom’s one term as representative, we would be done with that life. I know it’s tough for her being a mom and dad in the household so we don’t want her running for something that big,” Tricia said.
Eldest daughter Aika said she would rather that her family stayed out of politics and maintained their privacy. Thus, for her mother to run for a higher position, she and her sisters would be totally against it.
“It will be very stressful for them,” Leni told reporters on the sidelines of the third death anniversary commemoration for her husband.
Last week, civil society group Kaya Natin, supported by likeminded groups and individuals, launched the Leni Robredo for Vice President Movement.
According to Leni, she was not ready and had not been asked by the Liberal Party (LP) to be the running mate of Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, the LP’s standard bearer for the 2016 elections.