Former Speaker Jose de Venecia and his family on Friday night publicly endorsed Vice President Leni Robredo for president in the May 9 election.
De Venecia and his wife, former Pangasinan representative Gina de Venecia, along with their son, incumbent Pangasinan congressman Toff de Venecia, raised Robredo’s hands during a rally in Dagupan City, with Robredo even hugging the De Venecia couple before the endorsement was made.
Mrs. de Venecia and Robredo were both members of the 16th Congress, with Robredo representing her home province of Camarines Sur.
Ahead of the endorsement, Toff also gave a lengthy speech about Robredo’s competence and fitness for the job to be President.
Ironically, Toff was also present during a rally in Dagupan by former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. in Pangasinan, whereby he promised to deliver votes for his Lakas-CMD party-mate and vice presidential bet Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio.
Meanwhile, Robredo said the Department of Education should be held accountable for the modules that she said “poison” the people’s minds.
“Responsibility nila ito eh. ‘Yung DepEd dapat hindi nagpapalabas ng anything—not just because ako ‘yung nasa receiving end ng ginawa—pero kahit ano na magpo-poison sa minds ng mga tao, dapat hindi ‘yun pinapalusot ng DepEd,” Robredo said when asked to comment on reports that a DepEd learning module included questions that were biased against her.
Robredo said she had seen the questioned module, but has not ascertained its authenticity.
The DepEd Manila Division Office confirmed that the module that disparaged Robredo came from them. It released a statement, apologizing for “any harm that the incident may have caused to individuals or groups.”
It said the department was “committed to strictly abide by the standards of quality control and conformance review process when developing and producing learning modules.”