MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles, Manila Bureau) – Leni Robredo this week began her ‘solo’ campaign sorties after she and her political team saw the need to turn the spotlight away from her presidential running mate, Mar Roxas.

Robredo, the Liberal Party’s candidate for vice president, has not been doing very well in national polls, trailing behind rivals Senators Chiz Escudero and Bongbong Marcos.  Robredo acknowledged that all of her joint campaign appearances with Roxas have been largely focused on the presidential candidate.

But while Robredo is trying her best to “breakaway” from joint appearances with Roxas, the presidential candidate’s wife, broadcaster Korina Sanchez would not let go.

In a recent solo campaign appearance by Robredo, the media photographers jumped on the occasion to take picture-perfect shots of Robredo speaking to a crowd of supporters.  In photo after photo, supporters of Roxas led by Sanchez, photobombed Robredo with giant pairs of flipflops (tsinelas).

The flipflops are part of Sanchez’ Tsinelas  project which she started years ago to promote her television talk show.  The project aimed to collect a million pairs of flipflops to give away to poor families and children.  It has, since then, become a campaign paraphernalia for the Yellow Party, and in particular, Mar Roxas.