The camp of Vice President and presidential aspirant Leni Robredo on Sunday said she is planning to gain a foothold in the so-called Solid North.
Ex-Ifugao representative Teddy Baguilat Jr. said they were “inspired” by the successful Isabela rally to push through with their planned campaign sorties in Northern Luzon.
Over Robredo’s weekly dzXL radio program, he said they are planning to enter the stronghold of the Marcoses in Ilocos and La Union as well.
“At first, they were apprehensive. They said it could be difficult to pursue a rally in Baguio City. But now with what happened in Isabela, we were encouraged to take the challenge to increase the attendees of the grand rally in Baguio City,” he said.
“That is why that was a test case. In fact, that was such a huge challenge in Isabela,” he added.
The grand rally at Echague, Isabela, Robredo’s first foray into the “Solid North” territory, surprised Robredo herself who was admittedly “nervous” about the sortie.
As part of the sortie, Robredo and her running mate, Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan completed painting the rose on a pink mural when they made a quick stop in a privately-owned wall in Barangay Ipil in Echague.
It was more than a simple gesture of the tandem adding the finishing touches on a work of art: it was the mural that has been restored after uniformed personnel painted over the original one under the “Operation Baklas” campaign of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
As if that wasn’t enough, it was also vandalized after Robredo’s volunteers painted the white wall pink and held a candle-lighting ceremony as a form of protest.
The original mural was created by volunteers led by Youth for Leni-Isabela on February 13, where they painted the faces of Robredo and Pangilinan on the wall owned by Evelyn Afiado Flor. Four days later, the Comelec order came.
“Nakakagalit, nakakalungkot. Bakit masakit po? Kasi I’m a first-time voter po ngayon and I will give my first ever vote for President kay VP Leni. Madami pong youth ang tumulong before, kaya sobrang nasaktan po ako para sa ‘ming lahat and sa mga may edad po na sumusuporta sa amin until now,” said Sybil Daguro, member of the Echague Youth for Leni.
“We have to make a lot of sacrifices in terms of resources, in terms of people bullying. Binu-bully nila kami eh at tsaka ‘yung iba pinagtatawanan kami. We are a motley group daw, and ‘Your candidate will not win in Isabela’, sabi nila. And we are out to prove na with our meager resources and with the help of these youth volunteers, we will be able to have more voters for Leni and Kiko,” said Flor.
Flor said their campaign posters would be slashed or taken down, but she and the other volunteers would put them up again. It has become a cycle but they will never be daunted.