BY IVY LISA F. MENDOZA
Integrity and trustworthiness, competence, track record and purposefulness — Vice President Leni Robredo is all these and more. She carries with her the hope that tough times are but temporary and that Filipinos deserve to see the light at the end of even the darkest tunnels.
She has enough “resibos” over the years to prove that while others are still promising this and that, she has already done this and that.
It wasn’t love at first sight between the Filipino people and Vice President Leni Gerona Robredo. Nobody even had this soft-spoken provinciana development worker on her radar a decade ago.
Now 56, Robredo belongs to a generation that almost lost faith in the future, having known only one Philippine president in her earlier years. But EDSA happened, a dictator was ousted by the sheer power of the people, and a promising season of new beginnings unfolded before her eyes.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of the Philippines-Diliman in 1986, Leni was so fired up by this newfound hope that she endeavored to work for the government as her share in nation-building. Putting on hold her dream of becoming a lawyer just like her father, the 21-year-old Leni Gerona applied as a researcher and economist at the Bicol River Basin Development Program and there met her boss and future husband, Jesse Robredo.
But as fate would have it, she was thrust into the limelight after Jesse perished in a plane crash in August 2012 in the course of his job as Interior and Local Government Secretary of the Aquino administration. A much beloved mayor of Naga City and a Ramon Magsaysay awardee for Good Governance, Jesse gained fame for his tsinelas brand of leadership, which put the last and the least first, eradicated patronage politics in civil service, and championed accountability and transparency.
Jesse’s tsinelas were too big to fill. Not that his widow intended nor imagined to. After all, Leni had set her own high standards early in life, both as a legal professional and as a human being.
For 10 years, she taught Economics at the Universidad de Sta. Isabel in Naga City, while studying Law at the University of Nueva Caceres and raising three daughters with Jesse. After passing the Bar exams in 1996, Leni worked with the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) in Naga City and later as a human rights lawyer affiliated with Saligan, a legal resource NGO that helps the poor and the marginalized. Her work as Saligan lawyer took her to distant rural communities, often on a motorbike, other times on foot, to meet with those who did not have the means or the access to legal services. One of her more high-profile cases entailed winning back for the farmers of the Higaonon tribe in Sumilao, Bukidnon their ancestral land in 2008.
Still, when the initial curiosity for Jesse’s grieving widow had died down, not much public attention was given Leni who, in 2013, won a seat in Congress by landslide.
In 2016, the spotlight shifted and focused on her, before and after she was elected Vice President. Robredo became social media fodder, the main target of a concerted negative campaign that weaponized fake news. Tsek.ph, an academe and media-based fact-checking initiative aiming to counter disinformation confirmed that, to date, she remains to be the “biggest victim of disinformation.’
Transformational leadership
In January 2020, when the threat of a pandemic was imminent and the Philippines had just confirmed its first COVID-19 case, Robredo was the first and only government official to have urged the Duterte administration to impose a travel ban on people arriving from China, where COVID-19 was found to have originated.
Anticipating a public health crisis, Leni buckled down to work amid unabated attacks on her person, on her office, even on her family. With every situation labeled as “urgent,” the Office of the Vice President (OVP) quickly implemented out-of-the box solutions to new, unfamiliar problems brought about by the pandemic.
No transportation for frontliners? The OVP provided free shuttle services starting March 18, just two days after the official start of the Enhanced Community Quarantine. Volunteer dispatchers, conductors and coordinators were called upon, and they came in droves!
No place for frontliners to stay in after long hours of duty at work? Robredo sounded off a call for collaborators and private sector partners rose to the occasion to open dormitories across Metro Manila.
Personal protective equipment (PPEs) running out in hospitals? She knew better than to compete for overpriced imports and tapped sewers and urban poor organizations in Bulacan to give them livelihood to produce PPEs.
Market vendors and tricycle drivers losing livelihood? The OVP opened a community mart program and piloted it in Kamuning Market where goods may be ordered through an app and delivered to homes in identified barangays in Quezon City.
Confused about COVID symptoms but can’t get to a hospital? The OVP opened the volunteer-driven Bayanihan E-konsulta, a 24/7 telemedicine program where doctors did teleconsult, prescribed medicines and sent care packages. At its peak, E-konsulta processed 400 cases a day, and at its busiest, E-Konsulta would get an extra pair of hands from the Vice President herself, no less, who dispatched calls!
‘Resibo’
It seemed like the OVP wasn’t leaving anybody behind in its pursuit of solutions to pandemic-related situations, and word got around so quickly. On social media, people desperate for medical assistance would instantly be advised to “call or message the OVP.” Those who were able to experience the OVP team’s quick response would post testimonials on how their woes were attended to.
In October 2021, Dante Lardizabal, a Quezon City resident, was seen waiting outside the OVP with his biker friends, hoping to catch Robredo and express their support for her presidential bid. In an interview with ABS-CBN, Lardizabal confessed to being an ardent supporter of President Duterte. But during the surge in COVID-19 cases, three of his family members succumbed to the virus and only the OVP extended help. “Walang ospital, walang gamot, si VP Leni lang ang sumagot. Sinasabi ko sa inyo, siya lang ang alternatibo, lahat sila trapo,’’ Lardizabal said in the interview, crying.
Stories of Leni’s on-the-ground presence in dire situations soon surfaced, making people sit up and listen. A netizen, Heinrich Tulan, recalls the flooding in Tuguegarao on Nov. 13, 2021 and how people stranded on their roofs and waiting to be rescued desperately posted their locations and cellphone numbers on social media. Their fear was that the floodwaters would reach roof levels and people would be electrocuted.
Tulan initiated putting together a Google sheet file to include names and updates, and contacted several government officials. “Only one responded. It was Leni Robredo who requested a night rescue from the AFP, but the request was denied as far as I remember because there were no pilots available. The rescue could be done at 5:30 a.m at the earliest, according to her staff,” Tulan writes. “After 24 hours, who was the first to bring relief goods? Leni Robredo who personally stayed.”
The public and private sectors working together under the OVP’s Angat Buhay program to fight poverty, Yakan weavers in Basilan were given looms, fishermen in Aurora were provided boats after a typhoon, a Nursing student was given a laptop so she could attend her online class; solar lights and kits were distributed to barangays in Basilan and Oriental Mindoro. Mental health, learning centers and dormitories were set up to help young people cope during the pandemic, while carabaos were given to farmers and hogs to raisers in Samar.
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The OVP, despite its reduced budget, reaches out to the remotest areas by working with partners in providing interventions and mobilizing support through six key advocacy areas: food security and nutrition, universal healthcare, public education, rural development, housing and resettlement, and women empowerment.
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As of December 2021, Angat Buhay has partnered with 372 organizations, mobilizing a total of P 520 million worth of resources for 321,001 families and 305,223 individuals in 223 communities nationwide.
These stories have been told, shared, and retold, showing that Robredo is not afraid to roll up her sleeves and work. She has enough “resibos” over the years to prove that while others are still promising this and that, she has already done this and that.
In her speech on the day she announced her candidacy, Robredo advocated for radical love. “It’s easy to engage in debate, but it’s more radical to love. I encourage them to be more loving, to be more understanding. Don’t dive right into a quarrel,” Leni explained. Her supporters are heeding her call, saying that she inspires them to become better persons, better Filipinos.
In the same speech, she also said “Ang nagmamahal, kailangang ipaglaban ang minamahal,” and her supporters are doing just that, sparking a pink revolution founded on love for country and hope for a better Philippines.
