Leni denies pregnancy rumors

MANILA, Philippines - Vice President Leni Robredo denied yesterday rumors that she is pregnant.

Robredo called the pregnancy rumors, which are circulating in social media, as “laughable and an insult to all women.”

“We all know that this is not true and has no basis,” the Vice President told reporters.

Robredo, widow of the late interior and local government secretary Jesse Robredo who died in a place crash in 2012, has been romantically linked to a Quezon City congressman.

President Duterte, in a speech earlier this month in Tacloban City, joked about killing Robredo’s rumored boyfriend so that he could pursue her.

“Ma’am, balita ko may boyfriend ka na (I heard you already have a boyfriend). Do not be offended pero iyong sabi nila, hindi iyon totoo (but I hope what they said is not true)?” Duterte asked Robredo.

In a separate statement Robredo’s spokesperson Georgina Hernandez hit what she said was well-funded and well-orchestrated attacks to malign the Vice President.

“The demolition campaign has begun. And the next logistical question is: who is behind it?” she said.

“We have complete trust in the Filipino’s ability to discern fact from fiction, and steer clear of false news. Websites that masquerade as news sources have been fabricating these rumors, which are then spread by troll armies,” she said.

Marcos scheme

Robredo also said that former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will do “everything” to snatch the vice presidency from her.

Robredo also accused the camp of Marcos of conditioning the mind of the public on her possible removal from office.

“We have the feeling that they will do everything (to unseat me),” the Vice President told reporters after attending an event of farmers in Quezon City yesterday.

“I think the reason why we are more alarmed now is because of what happened last Friday,” Robredo said, referring to the surreptitious burial of the late dictator, Marcos’ father, at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig City.

“Because of that, we fear that anything is possible,” she said. “Because of what happened in the past few days, I think we have to be more vigilant.”

Marcos Jr. filed last June an electoral protest against Robredo, who won in the May elections by a slim margin of 263,473 votes.

Last Sunday, the camp of Robredo received text messages from “trusted sources,” saying that recount of ballots in the vice presidential race will happen later this year and “early next year, we have a new VP.”

Robredo accused the camp of Marcos as the one behind the text messages to “condition the mind of the people.”