Loren coping with rigors of campaign

MANILA, Philippines - Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) vice presidential candidate Loren Legarda walked into The STAR office in Port Area, Manila yesterday clad in her usual white shirt and faded jeans.

She was upbeat and ready to answer questions from the editors for the newspaper’s vice presidential series.

Legarda had just come from a series of meetings that started at 7 a.m., according to her staff.

Legarda said she used to run a few kilometers every morning, “but that’s before the campaign.”

Legarda lives in a posh village in Makati, although she listed her official residence as her ancestral home in Malabon.

A mother of two teenage sons, she wakes up at 5 a.m. after three to four hours of sleep.

Legarda starts her day by reading a chapter in the Bible.   

Afterwards, she starts a roll call of her staff and gets ready for the schedule of meetings and appointments for the day.

She enjoys a breakfast of soup with freshly-picked malunggay leaves and okra. 

For lunch, she takes fish or fried chicken with rice. She also likes sinigang and soup-based fish dishes.

Legarda said since the campaign, she has gained weight because she needs to eat a lot to fortify herself.   

“See me in June after the elections, and I will be back to my slimmer figure,” she said. 

“Right now, I have to eat more because of the strenuous campaign activities.”  

Apart from promoting climate change adaptation and protecting the environment, Legarda is also passionate when she talks about her two children - Lorenzo Antonio (Lanz), 20; and Leandro Antonio (Lean), 17.

During the day, Legarda calls Lean on his mobile phone to check on him. If Lean has some time, she brings him along on her sorties. Other times, they catch up during dinner. Her eldest son, Lanz, is studying in the United States.

Legarda and her children usually spend the Christmas holidays in Malabon.

One important person who has influenced Legarda besides her parents is her yaya, whom she fondly calls “Nanay Fely” (Bagayas), a native of Paoay, Ilocos Norte.

Legarda said the 77-year-old Nanay Fely was influential in raising her.

“She greatly influenced my core of being, she is my Ilocano Nanay... surviving her bout with cancer is greater than winning the elections,” she said.

Nanay Fely was her yaya since she was born, and she was also a yaya of her siblings and two sons.

During her campaign sorties, Legarda sings to relieve stress, and gets a massage whenever a good masseuse is available.

One late evening after she attended a dinner hosted by Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez and his wife, Councilor Cristina Gonzales-Romualdez, Legarda had a mini-concert at the house of An-Waray partylist Rep. Bem Noel in Tacloban City.

Legarda sang a few of her favorite Carpenters songs with a live band.

In another sortie, Legarda sang at a popular mall in Cebu using a Magic Sing, which she later bought.  

“It’s her way of de-stressing, she actually enjoys singing,” a staff member said.

Legarda said she is hard working and a perfectionist who would not tolerate mediocrity.

Recognizing the need to cope with the lead of her rival in the poll ratings, Legarda said she will bring back the “old, feisty Loren of 2007,” which gave her an advantage over her rivals.  

Legarda vowed to take a stronger, harder stance in the next seven weeks of the campaign. -Christina Mendez