Previously published in The Society of Honor by Joe America, September 18, 2023.

Question: You voted for former Vice President Leni Robredo May last year and you don’t like what’s happening. You feel you were robbed. Leni is the true winner, you think. But there is no groundswell of protest against electoral fraud in spite of overwhelming evidence of rigged elections. You’re in the 18 to 40 age group, comprising about 45 per cent of the voting population. You are happy to stay in your native land–a tropical splendor–have no Plan B in terms of country, but you simply cannot stomach rogues who have taken over the country. You continue to be prayerful, asking for divine intervention, pleading for leadership in these dark times. In the meantime, what can you do that is within your control, where you yourself can exert leadership or followership?

Answer: Join Angat Buhay. This org is an oasis of hope, compassion, action beyond the call of duty. How did I come upon this answer which is hiding in plain sight all along? How did I come up with this answer when people are moving in separate directions, busy recovering from pandemic doldrums, knowing about electoral fraud yet unwilling to do anything about it?

I was honored to have an interview with Pambansang Taga-Angat ng Buhay herself, Leni Robredo, last August 29th. She doesn’t look like a loser at all. How can it be, I asked myself, that the TOWGA or The One Who Got Away, is even blooming, suffused with the same spirit as in the campaign months of October 2021 to May 2022, effervescence defined? It goes to show that she really won, but that’s just me.

There are many signs she was the better candidate, by rally size and fervor reminiscent of the 1986 yellow-ribbon campaign of Cory, Cory, Cory. Thought leaders naturally gravitated towards her like the moon to earth.

Is she enjoying the freedom from a political position?

“Mas nagagawa ko na ang mga gusto kong gawin,” she said, “kasi hindi na ako constrained by public office. Akala namin mahihirapan ang Angat Buhay once I’m out of public office. Ang nangyari, baliktad.”

Aren’t you missing the adrenaline rush? 

“Even as far as Angat Buhay is concerned, partnerships with different organizations and companies in Angat Buhay mas nag-expand. Mas kampante siguro sila (donors) na wala nang shackles government office brings. Dati kami-kami lang sa OVP (Office of the Vice President) ang implementation, now we are an NGO with a huge army of volunteers from the campaign. We are trying to transform into a civil society organization which can partner with Angat Buhay on the ground. Yung adrenaline rush nanggagaling duon. Yung iba accredited na with SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission). Yung iba, mas loose organizations, kaya kailangang i-handhold. Kailangan naming bigyan ng capacity-building exercises. Iba ang adrenaline rush nuon, iba din ngayon.”

Angat Buhay was her flagship project while in OVP, and it will remain so now that she is a free agent. No more press statements and briefings, she said, and her freedom from these responsibilities is as astonishing as it is organizationally beneficial for all concerned.

(photo caption: Atty. Leni in her elements in Traslacion for Ina in Naga City)

What are the top three things you are proud to have done?

Marrying her husband Jesse is on top of her list. The late Jesse Robredo, who lost his life trying to catch their daughter’s swimming competition, riding in a small plane that crashed at sea off Masbate after fulfilling his duties as Secretary of local governments, remains in her center. “What would Jesse have done?” she would ask herself about certain issues. Jesse it was who ushered her into the world of politics.

In recognition of his achievements as Mayor of Naga (Camarines Sur), Jesse was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service in 2000, the first mayor ever to be awarded. He was appointed to the cabinet of former President Noynoy Aquino in 2010.

“Jesse is the better politician,” she reflected, acknowledging her lack of acumen in that area. “Hindi ako politician at heart, Jesse had that, wala ako nun. I just follow my heart. My core is work with the development sector.”

Next matter of pride: her daughters. “I am proud to have been very much involved in rearing our children,” she said. Consider this: the eldest Aika graduated with honors in Ateneo de Manila University, majoring in management engineering, after, a master’s degree from Harvard University. Second-born Dr. Tricia Robredo has a dual degree in Doctor of Medicine and Master of Business Administration from the Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health. Bunso Jillian Robredo graduated from New York University with a double degree in mathematics and economics under a full scholarship. High-achieving daughters and high-achieving parents. She takes pride in her organization. Everything is labeled in the Robredo home, identified in Excel file for easy retrieval. Systems get you daughters like the three. 

And the third point of heraldry in her life: “I was able to resist the lure of uhm… makisama sa political tide,” her words. There were instances in her work as vice president when she would have engaged in political tit for tat to survive, but she would have none of it.

Two women leaders: St. Teresa of Calcutta and former United Kingdom prime minister Margaret Thatcher. Which one are you nearer to in leadership style?

She admits to being nearer in-service philosophy to St. Teresa of Calcutta than to iron-lady Margaret Thatcher, United Kingdom’s longest-serving continuously prime minister in the eighties to nineties. Better known as Mother Teresa, the Indian Roman Catholic nun of Albanian origin founded the Missionaries of Charity and for over 45 years cared for the destitute, the sick and the dying. Atty. Leni agrees that St. Teresa’s leadership style is about heart and compassion; Thatcher’s style is more about brain and political adroitness. “Mas pang social development ako,” she said, “closer to the ground.”

From the very start of her exposure to public life, while picking up her daughters from school driving an Innova way back in Naga, Cam. Sur, she has always loved being ensconced with the people in bright and dismal times. It’s what makes her special. There were times in OVP and the campaign when she was advised to set aside heart (Mother Teresa) in favor of battle (Thatcher) but she declined. It’s not her, to be wily and war-like. For every Filipino voter who lusted after the carrots of Tallano gold and debt without repayment, there would be maybe three to five who still believed in good values. That’s the reason for her self-confidence and resilience. She didn’t die after the elections, she just sallied forth in the same direction, same horse and same troops, leaving political realities behind naturally.

You are the de facto head of the opposition, do you agree, disagree or it comes when it comes?

“It comes when it comes,” she replied without hesitation. “Sen. Risa Hontiveros is in a better place to lead,” she added, in Leni Robredo deflection without a hint of missing days gone by.

Word Association: Electoral Fraud

I have a game in Villanueva Interviews–word association–which the interviewee will bounce back with reactive words without thinking, and I said, “electoral fraud.” I thought the phrase would take her by surprise, maybe she would be sensitive to it. “Salot ng lipunan,” she said even before I completed pronouncing “fraud.” The lady is without guile, without agenda, without resentment or unforgiveness. But she knows where you have been, like a mother who will just pick up your clothes and leave you be, knowing her child is independently drunk but she got this.

Lately, there have been calls for her to voice out her feelings about Comelec’s foot dragging to answer the mandamus petition of the so-called TNTrio composed of Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Ely Rio, Gus Lagman and Franklin Ysaac, all computer geeks with about a hundred years of combined experience in digital technology. The Pambansang Taga-Angat ng Buhay is unruffled, a combination of Jesus in suffering, Ina (Mother Mary in Bicol) in care and empathy, Jesse in savvy, and St. Teresa in groundwork.

Let’s help the laylayan ng lipunan; that’s scrolled on her schoolgirl, unwrinkled brow. That’s what I saw, screaming to high heavens, with Robredo cool, calculated urgency in Excel sheet.

Impressions from the Interview

One, she didn’t shrink or will not shirk from her responsibility. It’s partly our problem. We got so engrossed with the Leni v. Bongbong narrative as in basketball that we forgot she wasn’t in it for just victory at the polls. She was actually storing ammunition for Angat Buhay, her pet project, which serves the laylayan ng lipunan, loosely translated, the hemline of the pants or skirt, the never-mind element in our public-service lexicon.  Some of us forgot that we were in it for the masses, and work for them continues with or without electoral victory. To Atty. Leni, it was clear from the start, hence the unchanging demeanor, the smile of a fulfilled mother in the midst of personal tragedy.

Two, she remains in our standing army fighting the recalcitrant, the practitioners of Machiavellianism, the political gamesmen. “It comes when it comes,” she replied when asked if she will suit up for the next battle, if ever. She could have said I will decline, I’m up to here with it, have better things to do now, enough, I’m free, no more. No, she is in peak condition, so are her troops.

She hasn’t conceded. She considers electoral fraud as “salot ng bayan.” Put the two together and you have protons and neutrons colliding with electrons in nuclear fusion. She chooses her battles. She’s our champion, that’s not open to doubt, deliberation, or despair. She’s in the thick of the fight for a better Philippines. I said thank you for the interview because she has a next engagement and I only had 30 minutes. I click leave the Zoom meeting entranced, enthralled, energized.