Robredo’s Angat Buhay launches with challenge to harness campaign energy into advocacy

MANILA, Philippines — Former Vice President Leni Robredo launched Friday her Angat Buhay non-government organization with a challenge to volunteers to sustain the energy they showed during her presidential campaign and channel this to advocacy and aid work.

“Our challenge now is how to harness our energy into something productive,” Robredo said in Filipino at the launch of Angat Buhay at her volunteer headquarters at Katipunan in Quezon City.

Robredo, who ran for president in the May polls but lost to her archrival President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., said Angat Buhay will focus on four pillars, namely health, education, disaster relief and response, and community engagement.

But she stressed that these would not be possible without the help of volunteers.

“All these would only work if we would continue the flow of energy that we showed during the campaign,” Robredo said.

Thousands flooded streets during Robredo’s rallies across the country during the campaign in a massive show of force for the then presidential candidate who was trailing behind Marcos Jr. in pre-election surveys.

But despite the mammoth crowds at her rallies, the former vice president still ended up losing in the race to Malacañang by over 16 million votes.

For Robredo, however, she and her supporters still emerged victorious.

“We weren’t failures during the election. We were victorious because of the campaign, we were able to start the spirit of volunteerism,” she said.

During the launch, Robredo, who is serving as the NGO’s chairperson, bared that they were not able to register Angat Buhay as a corporation as a different entity had registered with the same name years back.

Instead, they registered with government regulators as Angat Pinas Inc., but will continue to use Angat Buhay as the name of their program.

She also said that a museum featuring memorabilia and other materials from her presidential campaign called “Museo ng Pag-asa” will be opened within the month in a building that will also house Angat Buhay’s offices.