Congress wraps up canvassing, Robredo wins VP race

MANILA, Philippines – The wait is finally over. We now have a new Vice President in the name of Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo. As of of 7:13 p.m. on Friday, May 27, the Congress has wrapped up their canvassing with the widow of the late Jessie Robredo edging her close rival, Sen. BongBong Marcos by 263, 473 votes.

Vice President-elect Leni Robredo.
Vice President-elect Leni Robredo.
Today marks the 57th birthday of the late Naga City Mayor and DILG Secretary. “It was so coincidental that the Congress finished their canvassing on my husband’s birthday.” Uttered by the soft-spoken congresswoman in an interview at her husband’s mausoleum.

It was almost two weeks ago when the neck and neck vice presidential race started. It was all a seesaw battle between Cong. Robredo and Sen. Marcos. But when the partial and unofficial counting ended, Leni led BongBong by a slim margin of two hundred thousand plus. The Ilocos pride didn’t like the results at all. He vowed to file a formal protest and even accused Liberal Party of electoral manipulation.

Along with the cheating allegations, Leni has also been involved in the “Plan B” rumor of the present administration. Since LP presidential candidate Mar Roxas lost to Davao City Mayor Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte, a black propaganda emerged that if Cong. Robredo wins as the vice president, an anti-Duterte alliance will be formed in order to over-throw or impeach Rody Duterte so that Robredo can assume the presidency and LP will once again take over the government.

LP completely denied the “Plan B” accusation. In retaliation, Cong. Leni exclaimed: “Sino lang ba ang may pangarap maging presidente? Di ba sya lang naman?” Pertaining to her political rival, Sen. Marcos.

Unlike, the very tight vice presidential battle, presumptive president Rody Duterte still won over his contenders by an insurmountable 7 million votes after the official canvassing. Even “Tatay Digong” knew that Leni will be his vice president, so he has included her in his list of officials who will be given special tasks to run the government the “Duterte way”.

Couple of hours before the canvassing closed on Friday evening, Marcos was still leading Robredo by a little over 80,000 votes. But when the COCs from Antique and IloIlo came in, Leni finally went ahead of Bongbong until the very last vote has been counted.

According to Congress, they might do the presidential and vice-presidential proclamations on Monday. But before it happens, Sen. BongBong Marcos’ camp is expected to file official complaint that might delay and prolong Digong and Leni’s proclamation as the new top leaders of the country.

Atty. Leni is currently in Naga City to celebrate his late spouse’s birthday. They just finished hearing a mass when the news broke. The humble widow was so happy upon hearing the news. When congratulated by the media people for winning the position, Mrs. Robredo commented “thank you. But we’re not being proclaimed yet.”

Cong. Robredo finished the media interview with complementing the Congress for a job well done and a faster turn around. She was expecting that the canvassing will last until the second week of June.

As of publishing time, no comments have been released yet by the camp of Sen. Bong Bong Marcos. One thing is for sure, he will not easily concede and give up just yet.

--Joey Boy Capos, The Summit Express



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