Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — The late Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo — though gone now for three years — still had a big influence in the decision of his wife Maria Leonor, or Leni, to accept the Liberal Party offer for her to be its vice presidential candidate in the 2016 elections.
At least, that’s what it seemed like by the way Aika, the eldest of the three Robredo daughters, related the story to CNN Philippines’ Pia Hontiveros in her weekly show News.PH, which aired Wednesday (October 14).
The first reaction of the sisters when they heard about the offer was, as Aika put it, “a hard no.”
“Why was it a hard no for you?” Pia asked.
“We all had our reasons,” Aika said.
“But personally for me, my instinct was for self-preservation… Feeling ko kasi is: If my dad was still here, it would have been maybe a less difficult yes. Kasi he would still have my mom at home, may partner pa siya. But now, my mom is a single mom. She looks after us. She looks after a lot of people.
“So siguro pag nawawalan ka ng member of the family your instinct is you want to look after each other and make sure they’re okay.
“So yung feeling ko at the start, nasa line of fire kami lahat if she’s going to do this. So ako parang: ‘Pwede huwag na? Tayu-tayo na lang uli.”
Self-preservation, Pia pointed out, is not an entirely bad thing, saying: “You just want to protect those you love most in the world, di ba?”
“It’s true,” Aika said. “But then in the end kasi. We all realized that this is something that… There are more things more important than our own preferences. Kasama dun yung instinct for self-preservation, I suppose. Siguro there’s a responsibility that comes with being a daughter of my dad. Yung tingin namin: Parang malaking bagay kasi isipin kung ano ba yung gagawin niya, especially [because] we did not know at that time what is the right and the wrong decision for us.”
It took them about two weeks to decide.
“It was sort of a blur,” she said.
For her, it felt like the three days in August 2012, starting from the time her father’s plane was reported missing on August 18 to the time when divers found the plane, along with the secretary’s remains, on August 22.
Then and now it was uncertainty that was unsettling, Aika said.
But there’s a big difference.
“Back then, we really didn’t have a choice,” she said. “And ngayon, parang yung burden of choice nasa amin.”
And that, she said, really made it hard, saying: “Kasama dun yung takot that you will make the wrong decision.”
They didn’t spend each and every day and moment of each day agonizing about the offer — which she said officially extended by Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II (her father’s successor incidentally).
The offer was simple: “Be open. Just think about it.”
They talked about it just three times, she said. But each time was “emotional and draining.”
The first time, her mother told the sisters to just pray.
Meanwhile, they all tried to go about their daily business normally.
Her mother, of course, is a House member representing Camarines Sur.
Aika, a management engineering graduate of Ateneo de Manila University, had her work at the Office of Civil Defense. Her younger sister, Tricia, a medical student at the Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health, had classes to attend, and so did youngest, Jillian, who’s in her third year at the Philippine Science High School.
Aika recalled the second time they gathered again: “One night my mom finally said: ‘In my heart, I think, I feel that I’m being called to do this. But I won’t do this without your blessing.”
Still the sisters weren’t convinced. It was still a no.
“But there’s this unsettling feeling,” Aika said. “If my dad were here, what would he have done? And parang sigurado kami that he would tell us to support our mom.”
So the third time around, they gave their mom their approval.
As Aika explained in her News.PH interview: “He would have told my mom: ‘Yes, run. Huwag mong talikuran yung mga humihingi ng tulong sa’yo.’ And kami as his daughters: ‘Yes, support your mother.'”
And it’s not just moral support that they’re prepared to give.
Aika has decided to resign from her job at the OCD, which she said is co-terminus anyway with the Aquino administration. She would work full-time during the election campaign, heading the volunteers for her mother and sometimes probably even representing her mom.
Tricia wants to take a leave of absence from med school, so she could join the youth group during the campaign. But as of Aika’s interview, that hasn’t been settled yet.
Jillian definitely would have to stay in high school. Her contribution, as Aika put it, was to give a sense of normalcy during the campaign period — she would be center of focus for mother and sisters in family gatherings during breaks in the campaign.
Asked for her final words for her interview, Aika tried to clear up some misconceptions about her mother’s acceptance of the vice presidential candidacy:
“You know, I think people have the impression na my family — my mom especially — got pressured into saying yes to run for VP. It’s something na ang feeling ko, if you were in our position, there was more pressure to actually say no than to say yes — especially from the people who are close to us. I think they’re also very protective of us.
