Leni welcome to visit Capitol

CEBU, Philippines — Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia said she would gladly welcome Vice President Leni Robredo like the other presidentiables who visited her at the Capitol.

In fact, Garcia and Robredo were supposed to meet during the Vice President’s first visit to Cebu after she official filed her certificate of candidacy but their schedules did not permit.

Garcia made the statement in reaction to a reported plan of Robredo to see the governor in her next visit to Cebu.

“She will always be welcome and it would be good to see her again after all these months and years that we haven’t seen each other since the last time we were together in congress,” Garcia said.

The two were colleagues in the House of Representatives.

Garcia said she also had a good relationship with the late DILG secretary Jessie Robredo, the vice president’s husband, before he died in a plane crash in 2012.

“He (Jessie) never agreed to penalizing me, remember I was suspended as a penalty by then President Benigno Aquino (III). During his watch, he never agreed to penalizing me with a suspension, because he knew that what I did was right. And it was just too bad, he had to die in that plane crash,” Garcia told reporters.

The governor recalled how her last conversation with Jessie went when they were together in an event at the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC).

“Jessie Robredo was the guest speaker. I was there to welcome everyone. President Aquino was supposed to be the guest speaker but he sent Sec Robredo instead… I remember we were talking in our holding room, he said after this, I still have two more…” Garcia recalled.

“I had to leave before he could speak because I still have to catch a plane. When I landed, there were already messages, because those that knew that I was taking a flight to Manila thought, I was at the same flight (with Robredo),” Garcia added.

Although they do not belong to the same political party, Garcia said the vice president is always welcome at the Capitol and will be treated the same with the other presidentiables.

Among the presidential aspirants who have already visited Garcia at the Capitol are Manila Mayor Isko Moreno, Senator Panfilo Lacson and former senator Bongbong Marcos.

Garcia’s One Cebu Party has yet to endorse a presidential candidate until now. However, One Cebu Party secretary general, Third District Rep. Pablo John Garcia, has been very visible campaigning for Moreno. — FPL (FREEMAN)