Leni Robredo makes me proud to be a Filipino

If decency could be felt and heard, it would take form in Leni Robredo. For that reason alone, Leni makes me proud to be a Filipino.

Her simplicity is a product of the sincerity of her heart. For instance, she takes the bus from Naga to Manila and vice versa. To Isarog bus driver she calls Mang Manny, she’s also known as Passenger 2-C, her preferred seat number. Before the campaign period for the national elections started in February, she worked daily at the House of Representatives, representing the third district of Camarines Sur. Thursday nights would see her at the bus station in Cubao to catch her 9 p.m. trip to Naga on Isarog bus K. On Saturday night, she would take the same bus going back to Manila.

Even when her husband Jesse Robredo was Naga City Mayor and DILG Secretary, Leni, who turned 51 last April 23, refused to enjoy special treatment at the bus station. She lined up, bought her own ticket because “that is the right thing to do.” When spotlight was speckled on the dignified widow after her husband’s  plane crash in 2012, she still took the bus. “Ninety percent of the time, I take the bus going home. It’s much cheaper than taking a plane. Sayang ang pera. Mga P1,000 ang one-way trip to Naga; P4,000 sa eroplano. Napakalaking bagay ang natitipid ko,” she told me in an interview.

“Kuripot kami ni Jesse. Namana ng mga anak namin. I am not the type of mother who lectures to her children. When Aika, my eldest (now 28), enrolled in Ateneo (to take up Management Engineering) and stayed in a dorm, her first question to me was, ‘Ma, anong curfew ko?’ I said, ‘Wala kang curfew. Just let me know who you are with when you go out. And don’t take the taxi alone.’ Ayun, si Aika lamang yata ang walang curfew among her friends,” she said. Aika resigned from her job at the Office of Civil Defense last November to concentrate on her mother’s campaign.

Tricia, 21, her second daughter, told her mom she would not enroll at the Ateneo medical school to help her mother in the campaign sorties. But Leni did not approve of it. “Hindi naman ako makaka-concentrate sa med school kasi iisipin kita, Ma,” Leni recalled her daughter Tricia telling her. But Leni still enrolled her daughter. “We take it from there,” she told Tricia. “Pero sayang ang tuition fee kung mag-stop ako later.” She is still in med school and represents her mom to sorties on days when she has no classes.

Despite her hectic schedule in the campaign trail, Leni never forgets her role as a mother. She has time to tutor Jillian, 15, on her assignment on the Bill of Rights, for example, no matter how late she arrives in their home in Quezon City. Jillian is in Grade 10 at the Philippine Science High School. When their lessons are over, Leni and Jillian sleep together holding each other’s hand.

“When it comes to Math, si Aika na ang nag-tuturo kay Jillian. Dati si Jesse. Pipicturan ni Jillian ang problem or equation, tapos i-se-send sa Papa niya sa Manila. Nagtuturuan sila by exchanging pictures of solutions. Jillian competes in international Math contests. Ako? Bokya ako sa Math,” Leni admitted, with a hearty smile.

Leni’s honesty is admirable. She exhibits not a single molecule of embarrassment when she mentions her limitations. The same way that she is not afraid or ashamed to say that “the first time I took the bar, after finishing Law at the University of Nueva Caceres, I failed.” Leni, who finished Economics at the University of the Philippines, always sees the wisdom of second chances, of new beginnings. Leni has always been a working mom. She pursued Law at night while teaching in a local university in the morning.

“The most I tell my children is to ‘Depend on yourself. And no such thing as free lunch.’ Life is like that. You can survive life if you can live on your own. Resilient ang mga anak ko kahit marami kaming pinagdadaanang unos,” she said.

“Kami ni Jesse ay home buddies. Namana ng mga anak namin. Ang mga anak namin, grabe ang kanilang community engagements. They lead groups. They were born into it,” she said.

Yes, Leni does not have the habit of lecturing virtues to her daughters but they have been born to these values — how to be good individuals and citizens. “I am not a paragon of virtues. I am not perfect,” she quickly said. But Jesse and Leni showed their children the way — by example. Jesse, as a poster boy for good governance; Leni, as a selfless pro-bono human rights lawyer.

“There was a joke in Naga before. Kapag may nahuhuli sa jueteng (illegal numbers game), sasabihin nila, ipapakulong ni Mayor, palalayain ni Misis. I was with the public attorney’s office then,” Leni smiled.

At Saligan-Bicol, a legal resource NGO doing development work with the basic sectors like women and children, farmers, fisherfolk and laborers in the remotest of areas, Leni is not just a lawyer and coordinator but a voice to the marginalized. Even when she was pregnant, she would travel to the interior towns that had no electricity. Not even a room to accommodate her in. “Maraming beses nakikitulog na lamang kami ng mga kasama ko sa mga bangka. Pero bago pa man magmadaling araw, gigisingin na kami ng mga may-ari ng bangka kasi mangingisda na sila. Lulusong kami sa tubig at uumpisahan na ulit naming mag-trabaho. We taught the fisherfolk on legal education. Buntis pa ako noon,” she said in a forum.

In Leni’s legal mind and soulful heart, she always has a vision of a society founded in equality and respect. “I always go for inclusive growth and development of every individual,” she said.

At the Congress, she authored 37 bills and co-authored 124 bills and resolutions. She is the vice chairperson of the committees on good government and public accountability. Among the bills she authored include the Freedom of Information Bill, an act to strengthen the right of citizens to information held by the government; the Full Disclosure Bill, an act requiring full disclosure of information on fiscal management from all national government departments, agencies and offices; People’s Participation in Budget Deliberation Bill, an act institutionalizing citizens’ participation in the budget process; and People Empowerment Bill of 2014, an act creating a system of partnership between local governments and civil society organizations. 

“Sa aking pag-iikot sa buong bansa, nagiging maliwanag na sa akin ang dahilan kung bakit ako nandito ngayon,” she began her closing statement at the CNN Philippines-sponsored vice presidential debate. “Pakiramdam ko, buong buhay ko ay paghahanda. Yung simpleng pamumuhay, yung unos at kahirapan na pinagdaanan naming pamilya. Yung aking matagal na panunungkulan sa mga nasa laylayan ng lipunan.

“Kapag binabalikan ko ang mga kwento at mukha ng aking mga nakakasalmuha, sinasabi ko po sa sarili ko, ‘Excited na akong manalo.’ Hindi para sa sarili ko, pero para sa ating mga kababayan na umaasa na merong mamumuno sa kanila na hinding-hindi sila pababayaan.

“Noong una po akong tumakbo, halos wala po sa akin na nakakakilala. Sa lahat po yata sa amin, panghuli ako. Ngayon, hindi na ganon ang kwento. Malapit na, abot-kamay na ang tagumpay.

“Isa po akong ina, at hindi ko po pababayaan ang bayan. Naniniwala po ako sa dulo ng lahat, yung tama ang parating mananaig. Sa amin pong anim, may the best woman win!”

The beauty of Leni’s humanity is that she is honest. So you believe right away that she will walk her talk. After all, she has proven it many times in the many lives of the people who are at “the seams of society.”

Leni Robredo is decent. And every decent woman should make us proud to be Filipinos.

(For your new beginnings, e-mail me at bumbaki@yahoo.com.

I’m also on Twitter @bum_tenorio and Instagram @bumtenorio. Have a blessed Sunday!)