If elected president, Vice President Leni Robredo on Monday vowed to invest in renewable sources of energy and subsidies that make energy affordable for poor households in Samar.

During the kickoff of her Samar campaign sortie in Calbayog City, Robredo said she would push for energy subsidies to promote the use of renewable energy with the end goal of promoting economic development in the province.

“Kinakailangan talaga mag-subsidize ang pamahalaan rito, lalo na may renewable resources kayo rito (The government should really provide subsidies considering that there are various renewable energy resources here),” Robredo said.

She said providing energy subsidies would enable access to affordable modern energy sources, especially amid the soaring fuel prices.

“Ang mahal ng presyo ng gasolina. Kung hindi isa-subsidize ito, hindi tayo aasenso (The oil prices are surging. If the government will not subsidize (other non-fossil-fuel energy), then we won’t advance),” she said.

Robredo also highlighted that the Office of the Vice President (OVP) was able to deliver the much-needed help in Samar during the pandemic, such as personal protective equipment (PPE), medical supplies, and vaccines.

“Yung kakaunting meron kami, walang nahuhulog sa korapsyon. Yung kaunting meron kami, nakasisiguro na mapupunta siya doon sa mga lugar na talagang nangangailangan (What little we have, nothing falls to corruption. What little we have, we made sure that it will go to places in need),” she said.

‘Alarming surge’

Meanwhile, at least one Facebook page of Robredo’s supporters has been deactivated after an exponential increase in followers has been tracked by the page administrators.

In an official statement on Monday, the content creators behind the First Ko si Leni page said they have to temporarily shut down the page as a precautionary measure after noticing what they thought was an “alarming surge in Facebook page likes” in the past few hours, even saying some other Robredo supporter pages have experienced the weird influx of followers.

“In connection to the alarming increase in Facebook page likes of multiple Leni Robredo-related pages overnight including our very own page, we will be temporarily deactivating the account to prevent Facebook from taking it down,” they said.

The group did not disclose the reason behind its Facebook page deactivation.

“We are currently working on resolving this as soon as possible,” they said. “Let’s stay vigilant. No matter what, ipapanalo natin ito (we can win this).” (PNA)