Sara Duterte skips meeting Leni Robredo to shield her from criticisms

Vice President Sara Duterte on Tuesday said she decided against meeting her predecessor, former Vice President and now Naga City Mayor Leni Robredo, during this year’s Our Lady of Peñafrancia festivities in Naga to shield her from criticisms.

“Kasi ganito 'yun, noong nagkita kami ni Vice President Robredo sa bahay niya [last year], alam n'yo, hindi naman odd ‘yun kasi binibisita ko talaga ‘yung mga former vice presidents. Nagko-courtesy call ako. Sinasabi ko ano ang nangyayari sa opisina, ano ang projects ngayon. At dahil doon, binanatan siya ng mga kasama niya, particularly [former] senator [Antonio] Trillanes IV,” Duterte said at the sidelines of the House appropriations panel's hearing on the proposed P889 million budget of the Office of the Vice President for 2026.

(When I visited her last year, and it wasn’t odd because I do courtesy calls to former vice presidents...I told her (Robredo) of what is happening in my office, the projects of the OVP now. And because of that her allies pilloried her, particularly senator Trillanes.)

She was referring to the Peñafrancia festivities last year wherein the she met Robredo at her ancestral house in Naga City.  After the meeting, Robredo said everybody is welcome to join the Peñafrancia feast, regardless of political color. 

Trillanes, however, said that meeting Duterte was a wrong move on the part of Robredo, given that the Vice President previously disrespected one of Robredo’s major allies, Senator Risa Hontiveros.

“Hindi ko kasi gusto na nagaganon iyong isang former vice president, being a vice president. So for this visit sa Naga City, nagdesisyon ako na huwag na kami magkita para wala nang masabi ang mga tao kay former Vice President Leni Robredo,” Duterte added.

(I don’t like that a former vice president, being a Vice President myself, is treated that way. So for this [2025] visit in Naga City, I decided that I won’t meet with her so people would not have anything to say against her.)

The Naga Metropolitan Cathedral posted photos of the Vice President’s September 13 visit to the church to pay homage to Inâ or the Our Lady of Peñafrancia.

“She attended Mass, and participated in the nightly Marian Procession and Healing Prayer with the Manto of Inâ. She also visited and toured the Porta Mariae Museum,”  the Naga Metropolitan Cathedral said in a Facebook post. —AOL, GMA Integrated News