At the stroke of midnight on Tuesday, February 8, the start of the official campaign season for national elective posts in the 2022 elections, observant night owls noticed what they called a simple yet impactful change in the profile photo of the Office of the Vice President on its Facebook page.

The Facebook profile photo of Vice President Leni Robredo used to feature her in a countryside activity, with the Angat Buhay logo beside the official OVP logo. Since the start of the campaign season for national candidates, this photo has been replaced by the plain OVP logo.

Angat Buhay is the OVP’s flagship anti-poverty program, which is now part of her campaign slogan. (READ: Robredo’s new campaign tagline: ‘Gobyernong Tapat, Angat Buhay Lahat’)

Her supporters, known as kakampinks, have praised the move, saying this reflects “an honest government official running for a national position.”

Others observed that with the logo change, Robredo has “set the standards higher” among aspirants.

The OVP had earlier redesigned the logos of Robredo’s pandemic programs, the Bayanihan E-konsulta and Swab Cab, to support her request to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) that these programs be allowed even during the campaign season, since these actitivies are pandemic measures.

The OVP has suspended these programs as it awaits Comelec’s response to the Vice President’s January 18 request. At the time she made the request, the Philippines hit record-high daily COVID-19 cases, believed to be driven by the Omicron variant.

Candidates are required to secure a certificate of exception for projects related to social welfare, according to Section 13 of Comelec Resolution No. 10747. 

In her weekly radio show Biserbisyong Leni on Sunday, February 6, Robredo said that if the Comelec approves her request, she will not visit areas covered by these programs, which she had done in the past to personally thank her volunteers.

“Nag-pledge tayo na hindi ko pupuntahan, walang pangalan ko makikita. In fact, nag-redesign kami ng itsura ng mga logos para hindi siya ma-identify sa akin,” she said.

(We pledged that I will not visit these areas, and my name won’t be seen. In fact, we redesigned the look of the logos so that the programs wouldn’t be identified with me.)  – Rappler.com