untouchable

11

"Sepanx na ako." Shein dramatically says to Stella as the team would be parting ways for now.

You and your friends will be staying in Aringay, La Union for the day to aid in more H2H and other activities while the rest will follow Jill to La Trinidad in Benguet. Jillian has a tight schedule to follow and many speaking engagements on her belt. She'd only dip in and out of various cities, doing courtesy visits on each volunteer centers for a while then go to another place again. Sometimes the whole 24 hours in a day feels lacking.

You lightly hit the back of Shein's head to break them apart. "Ang drama, Shein. Magkikita-kita rin naman mamaya sa Baguio. Baklang 'to."

"Napaka-basher mo talaga, Y/N!" Stella exclaimed with a laugh. She then went to hug you briefly as they have to leave now.

"Ingat kayo ha, Miss Stella! Kitakits na lang later." You bade to her.

You couldn't even formally bid Jillian goodbye as she's still engaged on a conversation with some volunteers. When Stella went to her, they walked together to the van. You and Jill could only exchange a small wave in greeting before the van doors close so they could depart.

The rest of the morning went on with you meeting more people for an intensive house-to-house. Despite being in the bailiwick of the enemy, you've been treated with nothing but kindness. Online world and offline world is utterly distinct. Which is why heart-to-heart talks with people will always be effective.

You're just done with painting another mural with an artist volunteer group in Aringay, having fun as always. They even taught you some Ilocano words and phrases to improve your vocabulary, shared laughters with them and exchanged anecdotes about your experiences in the campaign. They're also feeding you like they've known you as a longtime family friend, and boy, do you love to eat. It's a comfortable feeling. You kinda wanna stay at this moment, but sadly, all good things have to come to an end.

When late afternoon rolled in, that's also time for you and your friends to leave Aringay to regroup with the team in Baguio. With a slightly heavy heart and promises of returning to the province when the circumstances allow you, you bid your goodbyes to the volunteers of La Union. But before you can truly leave, they asked you to hand their gifts and local snacks to the youngest Robredo as they forgot to give it to her earlier. You swore these will reach her hands.

Your group is now driving to Baguio. You left La Union with big smiles and all. Nothing could possibly ruin your mood.

"Oh my god." JD says in a shocked manner while he's looking at his phone.

"Why, beks?" Shein asked, voice a bit muffled as she's munching on some snacks.

"Check niyo 'yung eme about Jill. Nambastos daw si bebe ghorl ng ale kaya raw siya sinigawan? Ha? Hakdog?" JD replied.

Now this alerted you and immediately checked on your phone. You already knew this was bound to happen. How absolutely appalling of the other camp to do this. All because they know VP Leni continues to be unbowed by their constant attacks so they set their targets on her daughters.

Spliced videos and misleading articles where they put Jill in a bad light are getting viral on the internet, trolls were quick to add fuel to the fire as well. It is said that Jillian "provoked" a vendor during their run on the Baguio Market so someone shouted at them. The clips on the internet were all 15-30 seconds long only, not showing the full story. But that is just what the other camp needs, edited videos that can "back" their narrative. They're using these as leverage to dirty Jillian's and the volunteers' reputations.

Now the comments sections at every clips are hot on attacking Jillian for being so "entitled" because apparently she told them, "let me educate you". But that's not how Jill open her spiels in campaign runs. The fake news are ridiculously amusing and brain cell-killing if not infuriating. This was obviously a planned attack and it doesn't take a genius to know that. You still have faith that the true facts would come into light eventually, showing that the youngest Robredo is a kind and gentle spirit.