My First Encounter with Madam “Lugaw”

She reached for a place in her people’s hearts with an honesty and humility rarely seen in political circles. She was propelled to national prominence largely through the loss of her husband — who, during his lifetime, extolled the virtues of utmost integrity and good governance. She embarked upon a dazzling round of sorties in the remotest barrios using only a train, a public bus, and her slippers when she visits her constituents every week. She is known to account for every centavo of the people’s money and publish where it was spent. She works without fanfare and pushed for bills that are seen to benefit the greater majority. Through it all — and doing it with such detached self-possession and quiet authority that has marked her leadership persona as both refreshingly flexible and disconcertingly unpredictable — Vice-President MARIA LEONOR “LENI” GERONA ROBREDO, even then as House Representative in the 3rd Congressional District of Camarines Sur, she has begun to redefine the disheveled political landscape with her brand of empowering governance.

I was especially given a front row seat among a very select group of young businessmen and professionals, to get to know more about this attractive, enigmatic lady whom diehard Duterte supporters have disparagingly called, “Leni Lugaw” — a moniker they used to put down Vice President — whose camp supposedly sold “lugaw” (rice porridge) to fund her candidacy five years ago. Apparently, the strategy to use “lugaw” must have been effective because Robredo defeated the billionaire Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. in that election.

“Allow me to tackle head-on what most people say about me,” then Vice-Presidential aspirant Leni began with an air of discriminating toughness. “First, that I am a weak candidate. Second, that I have no business in politics based on the accomplishments of my husband.” With a wry mixture of affection and realism, she justified her years of keeping a low profile during all her husband’s 21 years as a public official, although she had been very supportive of his advocacies.

“Many say to be an empowered woman of our society, you have to stand out and be heard; that all must listen to your voice at every opportunity,” she ventured. “Many say gender equality is all about being as strong as a man, as important, and as celebrated. In my life at least, it meant knowing when to let go of the limelight and when to step up. It meant knowing when to keep quiet and when to speak. Being empowered meant understanding that not all kinds of strength are visible and auditory. When you know your true value as a woman — you can sit back with secure knowledge that the man of your dreams values your judgment because you value yours and that together, you are working on the same goals. You are not in a contest to be heard; you are working on the same team in this amazing game called life.”

The only woman candidate in the 2016 national election year’s field of predominantly male Vice-Presidential contenders, the soft-spoken erstwhile Congresswoman predicated her campaign platform on the strength of Naga City’s current success story. “Because of my work in the grassroots, Jess and I had the idea to provide a mechanism so that everyone should have a seat at the table,” she explained. “That was how the award-winning Naga City People’s Council was born. The idea was to give everyone who could organize themselves into a People’s Organization a chance to be part of the People’s Council and truly influence social and economic change in the city. It was not just a political platform. We have discovered the key to effective governance. The Mayor does not have the monopoly of brilliance; often, those we serve have the solutions we need. The problem was there was no opportunity for them to speak up. So, we gave them a platform to be heard.”

Since her husband’s unexpected passing, however, the Vice-President has systematically gone about stilling many of those doubts about her ability to govern. “I am not Jesse. I am my own person. I’ve made my own contributions to Naga’s success when he was alive. As representative of the third district, I have gone to every remote town and barangay, walked where my people walked, rode the bancas they rode, and ate the food they ate. I even danced Pantomina from time to time,” she disclosed. “You decide whether I am weak or whether I am tough and strong.”

After her brief talk and a string of hard-nosed answers to a succession of questions, Vice-President Leni had largely impressed this “thinking” audience with her no-nonsense candor and driving sense of duty. Even skeptics who dropped by just to give her the benefit of the doubt now speak with the fervor of the converted.

Some might say that Vice-President Leni Robredo had set herself an impossible task of leading a hopelessly fractured nation, to season force with humanity and realism with faith. Yet, if there is one thing that she has already committed to the safekeeping of posterity, it is her gift for stretching the limits of the possible. Eight years ago, the then-newly-widowed mom of three with the radiant smile managed to turn history into something of a fairy tale by successfully leading a fight against a well-entrenched political dynasty to become a Congresswoman.

“When I ran for Congress, people said I would lose,” she recalled with a glint of wistfulness. “I didn’t have the money, nor the machinery. I had to campaign on railroads and side streets. But I won by landslide vote of 80%. Never have I anticipated that one day, the torch my husband had been carrying will be passed on to me. And most of all, never have I thought that I would be running as your Vice-President.”

If she can now bring something of the morality play as Vice-President even to a hardened political world, history itself, like most of the forces she has already met, may one day be quietly transformed. From that day onward, she has transformed me.