Cancer survivor offers P500 bday cash gift for Leni’s bid

By Manuel T. Ugalde

A 68-year-old cancer survivor will donate her P500 birthday cash gift from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for the presidential campaign of Vice President Leni Robredo. The woman said her P500 cash donation to the presidential bid of Robredo, however, is chargeable against her future DSWD cash gift as a senior citizen, when she turns 69 in February 2022.

Without any fanfare, the lady donor who is a retired public school teacher from Ligao City, said her P500 birthday cash gift to the campaign of Robredo will be paid in advanced by her daughter. She asked this writer for help where to send the small amount, explaining she wanted Robredo be the counytry’s next president. She refused to be identified to avoid any negative implication, adding she feels it is the moral duty of every Filipino to extend help for the deserving candidate. Little thing could mean a lot, she said.

“I want Leni Robredo to be the next president, lamenting that the six long years under a leader who have no qualm of conscience in cursing God with the propensity of vulgar language utterances is something to be feared, saying vulgar words has become the new normal street languages among children under President Duterte’s despotic leadership, said the lady cancer survivor.

The cancer survivor said she had been patiently waiting for the Oct. 8 deadline on the filing of certificate of candidacy about the Robredo’s plans whether to run or not for the presidency. It was on Oct. 7, when Vice President Robredo finally announced her presidential bid, to my comfort, she added.

“I am aware that the Vice President is not equipped with funds needed to finance her presidential candidacy, that I am voluntary offering my future P500 birthday gift from the DSWD as a senior citizen.”

The cancer survivor said she retired early from government service as a public school teacher at the age of 60, after having been diagnosed with stage 3 cervical cancer, which had exhausted her retirement benefits for her medical and hospitalization expenses.

A grandmother of eight kids who are still in grade schools, the woman said that Leni is the complete opposite of President Duterte’s arrogant and highly disputable character, saying the Vice President, if elected President, would be a living example that may restore the moral fibre in public service. She lamented that young children are growing up with bad discipline and character influenced by the President’s habitual utterances of vulgar words that are becoming part of the youth upbringing.

As this developed, a 74-year-old retired US Navy officer claimed that even his wife had threatened to abandon or divorce him should he choose another presidential candidate other than Robredo, while a 55-year-old barber shop cashier in Legazpi City said her daughter, who belongs to millennial generation also threatened to leave home if the family won’t be solid for Leni.

The US Navy retiree identified as Ben Roquid of Oas, Albay and Legazpi City is the recognized coordinator of the decade-old existing Legazpi City senior citizens group dubbed as the Ragtag Seniors Club with 70 members, who regularly meet over breakfast or cup of coffee in a food house at the Ayala Mall in Legazpi City.

According to businessman Eduardo Jovero, who is a among the regular member of the Legazpi City-based senior citizens ragtag group, local mayors in the Bicol region who are not openly supportive of the Robredo’s candidacy are at risk of losing support from their constituents, citing the outpouring of support for Robredo’s presidential bid. So far only Legazpi City Mayor Noel Rosal and Tabaco City Mayor Krisel Lagman Luistro have openly announced their support for Leni Robredo.

Latest development, however, showed that seven more local mayors in Albay have signed resolution in support for Robredo candidacy, said Rep. Edcel Lagman of the Albay 1st District.

A strong support for Leni presidency from ordinary citizens, middle class and businessmen in Bicol was highly demonstrated during the few held caravan sponsored by Leni supporters in Albay, Sorsogon, Camarines Sur, and Camarines Norte, where residents from all walks of life lined-up along the roads carrying banners and anything in pink color, reminiscent during the campaign of then presidential bet Cory Aquino against the ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos.