MANILA, Philippines – Vice President Leni Robredo has a new tagline for her presidential campaign: “Gobyernong Tapat, Angat Buhay Lahat (Honest Government, a Better Life for All)” – which encapsulates her aspirations for the country if she would be elected as the next president.

The tagline means that under an honest government that would not tolerate corruption, all Filipinos can look forward to better lives.

In a press conference on Tuesday, January 11, Robredo said this new tagline was crafted as a response to the challenge her candidacy faced in helping ensure that her supporters – who have dubbed themselves as “Kakampinks” – would have message discipline in the run-up to the 2022 elections.

Robredo said this new messaging reflects not only her track record, but also the kind of government she promises to lead if she wins in 2022. It’s also a homage of sorts to her flagship anti-poverty program Angat Buhay.

The Robredo campaign was launched in October 2021 via her call for “radical love” amid the wildly polarized political dynamics in the Philippines.

Explaning why her team came up with the new tagline, the presidential aspirant said: “Kaya naisip natin na magkaroon ng isang common tagline na mag-e-encapsulate kung ano ‘yung pinaglalaban natin saka ano ‘yung aasahan nila ‘pag tayo ay binigyan ng pagkakataon. So ito ‘yung ‘Gobyernong Tapat, Angat Buhay Lahat.'”

(That’s why we thought of having one common tagline that encapsulates what we are fighting for and what the public can expect from us if they give us a chance. So this is “Gobyernong Tapat, Angat Buhay Lahat.”)

“Para lahat ng messaging efforts, kahit may independence pa rin sila gawin kung ano yung gusto nilang gawin, at least parang may discipline sa message. Kasi ‘yun ‘yung naging problema namin,” she added. 

(We made this tagline so that all messaging efforts would be disciplined, yet supporters would still have the independence on how they plan to execute it. This was the problem we had to deal with.)

Robredo admitted that it had been difficult to organize her supporters in relation to her presidential campaign’s central messaging. But she also found this to be a “good problem” as it prompted her team to set up hubs called People’s Councils across the country to facilitate better communication with her volunteers.

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‘Hadouken’ and messaging challenges

Though she is grateful for all her supporters efforts so far, Robredo acknowledged her campaign message on “radical love” has been diluted since the volunteer groups were acting on their own. 

It’s one of the downsides of Robredo’s bottom-up, volunteer-led campaign for the May 2022 elections. 

“‘Yung good problem, naging challenge talaga how to organize everyone. Kasi…may kanya-kanyang ginagawa lahat. So parang the whole of October, November, and early December, ‘yung ginawa lang talaga natin, in-organize sila,” Robredo said. 

(The good problem that we have is that it has been a challenge really how to organize everyone. It’s because there were independent efforts being done by everybody. So the whole of October, November, and early December, what we did was to organize them.)

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“‘Yung pinaka-problema lang sa amin na nung nasa process pa lang ng pag-organize, parang nada-dilute yung messaging, parang nadi-diffuse, kasi may kanya-kanya eh (Our biggest problem during the process of organizing was that the messaging was beign diluted, diffused, because they were all working on their own),” Robredo added. 

While Robredo did not mention any specifics, a volunteer-made Tiktok video of her doing the hadouken – a special attack move popularized by Capcom’s Street Fighter game – caused an uproar online. Critics made fun of the gimmick, and even Robredo’s own supporters slammed the execution as being off-message and off-brand.

Robredo said the lack of message discipline among her supporters was the reason why People’s Councils were formed for every sector and province by end-2021. 

Robredo has improved her voter preference rating in the December 2021 Pulse Asia survey, rising to 20% from her 6% to 8% rating in mid-2021. But she is in far second place to her rival Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., who has outpaced all other presidential bets with 53%.  – Rappler.com