Leni Robredo: I can't refuse call to serve

Manila: The nation first, before self.

With those terse words (“Bayan muna bago sarili” in Filipino), Camarines Sur Representative Maria Leonor "Leni" Robredo accepted the Liberal Party's offer to run as Vice President alongside the party’s standard-bearer Manuel "Mar" Roxas II in the 2016 presidential elections.

That phrase is hoped by many to be the battlecry of a new breed of leaders that would define the next generation of the country's public servants.

Robredo is a reluctant candidate for the second-highest office in Asia’s emerging economic tiger with 100 million inhabitants, but is a long way to vice-presidency as she lags in most opinion polls.

Undeterred by her low standing with pollsters, Robredo went to the Kalayaan (Freedom) Hall of Club Filipino on Monday, October 5, where Roxas formally announced her as his running mate in the 2016 vote.

In her acceptance speech, Leni said she was "wholly offering" herself to the people. She decided to accept the offer, she said, because she was certain her late husband would have agreed to sacrifice anything for the country.

"I fully offer myself to our countrymen, especially those in the gutter, to those who are at the bottom and the fringes of our society," she said to a cheering crowd of partymates.

It seems Robredo agonised over -- or at least kept wide awake by -- a potentially life-changing decision. Aty 3am on October 5, she tweeted this:

To give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds.

— Leni Robredo (@lenirobredo) October 4, 2015

Two weeks ago, Roxas asked Robredo, a lawyer and former judge, to be his running mate.

Robredo lost her husband, the much-loved former Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo, to a plane crash in 2012.

The widow earlier expressed reluctance to run due to her three daughter’s opposition, and because she feels there are other politicians more qualified than her to assume the position.

On September 28, she stold a Manila newspaper: “I need to respond to the apprehensions of my children. We all know what election would cost us. No matter how much you try to do well, some people get vicious during the campaign. I needed to make sure I can protect my children,” she said.

At Club Filipino, on Monday (October 5), the crowd included President Benigno Aquino III, party mates, supporters and Robredo’s 3 daughters.

Roxas said the country is witness "to another form of sacrifice" by a "single mother who has been picked and chosen to listen to the call of Daang Matuwid (Straight Path)."

"It's a sacrifice of an entire family, to put nation above self," said Roxas in introducing Robredo, as he acknowledged the sacrifices made by Robredo and her daughters – first when they lost the head of family, former Interior Secretay Jesse Robredo, who died in a plane crash in 2012, and second, their decision to finally run for vice president.

"Daang Matuwid needs you. Our boss needs you," Roxas said in Filipino.

Roxas also addressed the Robredo children – Aika, Triccia and Jillian – expressing the hope that "you are comforted with the thought" that their father would also decide on what is good for the country.

Jesse would have said, "Kung anong makakabuti sa bansa, sige lang (Whatever is good for the country, let it be)," Roxas said.

Speaking in Filipino, Leni Robredo said: “I am not Jesse, but when he died, it was clear to me and our children that he is expecting that we would do all we could and try to sacrifice like he did, in order to share (our lives) with the country.”