Robredo on Duterte tirade vs. her: Let my late husband do the talking

“Received so many messages today asking me to react or defend myself,” the Vice President wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday, August 15. (File photo: VP Leni Robredo/Facebook)

Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo reacted to the remarks made by President Rodrigo Duterte that questioned her leadership skills after she was urged to defend herself from it.

“Received so many messages today asking me to react or defend myself,” the Vice President wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday, August 15.

Robredo was asked to respond  to Duterte’s “honest opinion” on Tuesday, August 14, where he said that he would only leave his post if someone like former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero would be his successor, stressing that the incumbent Vice President could not handle the responsibilities of the country’s chief executive.

[READ: Duterte ready to resign if Escudero, Marcos to lead]

The Vice President did not issue a lengthy statement as her response, instead, she shared a video clip of a previous interview by GMA with her late husband, former Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Jesse Robredo.

“Since we’re commemorating his (Jesse) 6th death anniversary on Saturday, we’ll let him do the talking. Ganyan din naman sagot ko (We have the same answers, anyway),” she said.

In the two-minute video, Jesse shared that he and his family wanted to live a simple life and not get themselves involved in politics.

But with his position in the national government, the former Interior secretary said his wife and children understood that serving the people would make him happy, despite the challenges that came with it.

“Maayos naman hangarin mo. Nais mong magtrabaho nang maayos. Gusto mong pagsipagan ito bakit nagkaganito pa (You have good intentions. You want to do your job right. You want to work hard on it, but why is this happening)?” Jesse asked.

He then said he could not join the image-building ‘game’ of some politicians.

“I will not pay anyone just to build up my name, build up my image… I will not do that, because you know, in doing that, I do not believe in myself anymore,” he explained.

“Kaya sa’kin ‘yung larong ‘yan hindi talaga ako pwede. Kung ganyan ‘yung laro sa Maynila, eh maling player ako o mali ‘yung larong nasalihan ko (That is why for me, I’m not qualified to play the game. If that is the game in Manila, then I’m the wrong player or I joined the wrong game),” he added.

Jesse believed that the truth will prevail and the good will win in the end.

“I think in time, all of these will pass, people will realize what the truth really is and hopefully by that time, nandyan pa rin ako (I’m still there) and people will look at things differently,” the ex-Interior secretary said at the end of the video.

While Leni used her late husband’s wisdom as her defense, her spokesperson, Barry Gutierrez, took to Twitter his statement to fire back at the President.

“Tatlong bagay lang. Una, 155,000 na pamilya ang natulungan ni VP Leni, na walang anomalya, walang kurakot, at habang walang puwesto sa Cabinet (Three things only. First, VP Leni already helped 155,000 families without anomalies, corruption, and even without a position in the Cabinet),” Gutierrez said.

“Pangalawa, pasensiya na siya, pero TALO si BBM (Marcos) at Chiz nung eleksyon. Pangatlo, hanggang dito ba naman nakalimutan pa rin si Alan [Peter Cayetano] (Secondly, sorry but Marcos and Escudero did not win in the 2016 polls. Third, up until here he forgot to mention Alan)?” he added.