Robina on recent kidnappings, retirement

EYES WIDE OPEN

- IRIS GONZALES

Outside the Gokongwei Group and the UP Fighting Maroons, tycoon and sports patron Robina Gokongwei is famously synonymous with two enduring tales that refuse to die—one a cult urban legend, the other a real-life horror story.

The first involves a snake twin said to haunt a Robinson's department store ladies' fitting room, a story that spread like wildfire in the '90s, like retail folklore.

The second, far less mythical, was her dramatic 1981 kidnapping—a headline-grabbing ordeal that once gripped the nation.

Admittedly, her kidnapping was what entered my mind when I saw her recently at a birthday dinner because of the recent high-profile kidnapping cases in the country.

Is she bothered? Is she extra careful these days? Does she think there is indeed a new spate of kidnappings?

Robina said that then and now, she still goes around with her security staff.

But, she said firmly and with no hesitation, that she hopes that supercop-turned-lawmaker Ping Lacson, the man who rescued her, will win one of the 12 coveted senate seats.

Ping Lacson, white knight

Lacson led the team that rescued Robina from her kidnappers.

This was what Robina posted when Lacson lost in the 2022 presidential elections.