Robredo lookalike in #Halalan2022
By J.Lo
“Everybody asked to have a picture… I just played along…someone interviewed me and I just answered as best as I could,” an office worker, Ma. Lourdes Caiñ said “wala lang, play along din ako…tapos may mag-interview, sinasagot ko lang, sa aking kaya … I was having a kick out of it, I was enjoying it.”
Ma. Lourdes Caiña has listened to campaign speech by Vice President Leni Robredo, the presidential contender she hopes will help restore Filipinos’ respect for each other.
Caiña posed for selfies requested by a group of youngsters due to her resemblance to Robredo.
Caiña, 51, said an old woman was the first to tell her she had Robredo’s eyes, after the latter’s husband, then interior secretary Jesse, died in a plane crash in 2012. After Robredo won the vice presidency in 2016, Caiña said her friends began calling her “VP.”
But it was not until this February when more people began to notice her resemblance to the Vice President after a friend asked Caiña to impersonate the leader as a judge at their town festival. The festival was celebrated a day after Robredo’s supporters held caravan marking official start of her presidential campaign.
Caiña said while it was “quite flattering” to be Robredo lookalike, she also began receiving hate comments online.
“What is so sad is that ‘yong mga bashers nila, it’s way, way below the belt… gawin n’yo ‘yan sa isang taong wala namang kasalanan sa inyo, it only reflects what we are deep inside,” Caiña said.
“Bashers were way, way below the belt….if you do that to someone who has not done anything against you, it only reflects what we are deep inside… I have my fair share, too…my husband and my kids were also affected because there were comments saying ‘perhaps she’s stupid, too’ or ‘Maybe she’s also absentminded.’”
These were the same insults that have targeted Robredo, which she blamed on spliced videos and online disinformation.
“Some friends ask me, ‘how can you endure that…my answer is simple…with limited mandate given to me, I did my job well.”
“There are so many needs, will I give time to respond to insults claiming I am stupid?” she added.
Caiña said she supports Robredo’s candidacy because she is “way, way qualified compared to others.”
“I just wish that people could go back to the basics,” Caiña said.
She urged fellow voters, “remind your fellow voter that election is not all for the glory of the candidates, but it’s the moment for us to be critical about who to vote instead of readily believing whatever history and what we read on social media”
Caiña considers being Robredo’s lookalike “a big responsibility.”
“Even if I am just on the sideline, it’s a challenge me to set a good example,” she said.
“Let’s start the change from within… I’m rooting for respect to come back, so I do it, start with myself and my little circles… I hope the ripples will just spread because that is what is lacking, the respect of people for others.”
ISKUP! 