Dear Ms. Leni Robredo
Friday's news report showed you in prayer with Archbishop Rolly Tirona when presidential candidate Mar Roxas formally asked you to run for vice president.
You were also in my dream last Thursday evening. We were both in the same gathering and when I saw you, I think I prayed and asked the Lord whether it was His will that I approach you to share with you some prayerful reflections to help your decision about whether to run, as VP or as president, in the next election or not.
Just as I prayed, I saw you next excusing yourself from the people around you, to answer a call in your cellphone. I thought that was the God-given occasion for me to try to approach you and ask for a few minutes of your time. As you talked on the phone, only then did I notice that you were in a simple but beautiful beige and brown Filipina gown.
As I walked towards you, next thing I saw, you were rushing out towards the door. I tried to catch up with you and gratefully, with God's grace, was able to catch your attention and you kindly spared me some of your time.
This is what I shared with you in the dream, prayerful reflections that I had long wanted to share with you through this column.
First, we totally understand your reluctance to run for higher position. Camarines Sur has always been home, your comfort zone too. You and your husband have served the local people for so long now. The people there also hope you will continue to serve them as their representative.
However, had Sir Jesse Robredo been around till now, he would have been, in time, the people's candidate to be president. Like you, he would have hesitated to run for the highest or the second highest or the highest political position of this country, not because of lack of capability because he has demonstrated his own humane, honest, and God-guided effective style of public service both in Camarines Sur and during his stint as DILG chief. You have also continued the same style of public service where you are now.
Like your husband, you have continued your humble lifestyle despite being a politico. You take the public bus, at night, without any body guard. You and your children continue to live very simple lives that our people can relate to and which our people hope to see more in genuine public servants.
With Sir Jesse up in heaven with the Lord, what advice would he have given you now that you are being invited to be vice presidential candidate or now that many Filipinos, like me, are requesting you to consider being our president?
As before, just as you continued to pray together as a family, I am sure that you, Sir Jesse, and the children are continuing to pray hard together for discernment from the Lord, to do His will, and not your own.
We join you and your family pray for God to guide your discernment, so that you will decide about the next election, according to God's will, how and where He wants you to serve Him and our people in 2016.
Your children are very precious to you and you would like to have more quality time with them and we completely respect this. If this is God's will for you, then it will be so. Should the Lord, however, guide you to consider a higher public position, then I am sure you know that God and Sir Jesse will continue to support you take best care of your children and for sure, your children will also understand and accept God's clear mission for you.
You also explained that you are not qualified/prepared to serve in a higher public position. The former president Corazon Aquino was also, like you, unprepared to lead our country. Unlike you, she had no political or legal experience. Ninoy's death and God's will pushed her to be our country's president. Her sincerity to serve our people and her strong faith in God continue to be remembered and appreciated by our people. If it will be God's will for you to lead our people and our country, He will equip you with all that you will need to be His appointed leader.
It will not be easy, as in the case of PNoy who also was reluctant to run for president but decided to do so, after a period of spiritual retreat to ask for God's guidance. He went ahead anyway, just like his mother, and just as his father, Ninoy and your husband, Sir Jesse proceeded to do the will of the Lord.
While Mar Roxas may appear to be just as hardworking and sincere in his desire to serve our people, he comes from the privileged class, like PNoy. He has never had to take the public bus. His social class could never tolerate anyone in rubber slippers out in the street. He also seems like he has yet to accept himself for and as himself and be proud to share whoever he is with our people. We truly wonder whether he can manage his temper and his impatient style of governance, not to mention a very headstrong wife.
And so we have been praying to God for a very humble, down to earth but sensitive, genuine public leader like you as president who always asks God to be her daily guide and refuge for herself, her family, and her constituents. Genuine, widespread social inclusion may have a better chance with you as our leader because you and Sir Jesse have tried hard to make this the norm in Camarines Sur.
In my dream, after kindly giving me your time, a worried look crossed your face and you asked to be excused, and then you hurried again towards the door. Perhaps that was the door where you have to enter into spiritual dialogue and communion with the Lord?
Please take your time to be still before the Lord, to discern His will for you. To run or not to run, for president or for vice president? We join you pray for God's guidance, too, for you and for our country.
We also hope Mar Roxas goes into a period of discernment, too, about God's plan for him, how God wants him to serve God and our people best, as vice president or as president. We also pray that God will make His will known to the rest of the candidates and we pray that the candidates will have the humility and heart to submit themselves to obey God's will, not theirs, about what is best for our people and our land. We also pray that our people will pray for God to bless our country with genuine public servants appointed by Him.
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