Simply Leni

Leni Robredo has done very well for herself. Two years after Jesse’s death, she has evolved in the public mind from bereaved widow of a hero and the mother of their children, to a respected legislator, hard-working but low-key, who in her own unobtrusive manner, has impressed many people enough to urge her to run for higher office.

Of course she would rather run for another term as her district’s representative in Congress, or, if drafted, a senator. She never  considered vying for a higher office. But she has said that if, and only if there is no one else who can or would — what with Grace Poe playing it alternatively coy and combative — she will accept the call to run as Mar Roxas’ vice presidential candidate. 

That was enough for her admirers who, last Wednesday, launched the “Leni is my VP” movement.

Talk of parallels, Cory Aquino was forced to accept the draft as the opposition’s candidate for President against Ferdinand Marcos, which should have been Ninoy’s had he not been murdered by the martial law regime. Thirty years later, another widow is being considered for a job that her late husband would have been excellent for. Those who knew Jesse Robredo consider him the best president our country never had.

But Leni fills his enormous shoes – slippers (tsinelas), actually – sufficiently, with the same energy, doggedness and integrity that Jesse served the people of Naga, and the country as Secretary of the Interior and Local Government until his untimely death in 2013.

Although I knew Jesse, I only met Leni at his wake in Malacañang. I remember thinking how lucky Jesse was to have had such a strong and personable woman for a wife, and how lucky she was to have been married to such a fine man. We saw at Jesse’s wake and funeral, the quiet composure, inner strength, simplicity and intelligence of his beautiful bereaved widow.

We have come to know Leni Robredo better in the past two years. As congresswoman from Naga, she keeps a high profile via an active Facebook account where she reports on her visits to the far reaches of her district, and also shares her fun times with her three daughters.

There are images of her in jeans and T-shirt inspecting rural projects, interviewing her constituents, hugging typhoon victims, presiding at meetings. Always, she is simple, attentive, engaged, an energetic legislator who takes her constituents’ issues to heart. 

A picture of her standing by the roadside waiting to flag down a bus that would take her to Naga for consultations with her constituents has become viral. As mayor of Naga, Jesse also rode provincial buses alone seemingly oblivious to dangers to his safety from his powerful political foes. And that stolen shot of Leni in her Filipiniana finery, sneaking down a back stairway at the Batasan to avoid walking on the red carpet during the SONA has become iconic. What a refreshing change she is from her preening self-important fashionista colleagues in Congress.

Leni has brought to public service the simplicity, sensitivity and dedication of one who has spent her professional life serving the legal needs of the poor.  She and Jesse made quite a pair — servant-leaders who tirelessly promoted and practiced people empowerment and transparency in governance.

Cleaning up my iPad, I found a file I had saved from June 2013, a power point presentation titled “Jesse’s List: The Tsinelas Legacy”. “Jesse’s list” consists of values of leadership that he practiced, put together by people close to him in the hope that it inspires others in public office and the electorate who elect them. 

Values such as faith and family first, it’s okay not to conform, be uncomfortable with perks, consistently show appreciation and support, trust, engage, take the leap, find your meaning, are pure Jesse.

Jesse also practiced “Kayo muna bago kami, Sila muna bago tayo (You first before me, others first before us).” In his mayor’s office during a downpour, I asked him why he didn’t have the badly leaking ceiling fixed. Jesse replied there were many other priorities that needed attending to.

Black and white. He was wary of grey areas, careful about situations that would require compromising his principles.

He also pushed for governance that is both matino and mahusay, upright and competent. “It is not enough that one is upright,” Jesse said. “It is also not enough that one is competent. Not everyone who is upright is competent, and not everyone who is competent is upright. One has to be both upright and competent.” To which, his friends added, one has also to be compassionate, like Jesse was.

Like Leni is.

Leni’s brand of leadership is not exactly of the tsinelas variety. She is definitely better dressed than Jesse was. But like Jesse, she is simply Leni, who shares the leadership qualities that made her husband so admired and loved by the public. If she is chosen, and she accepts, Leni Robredo will make a heck of a candidate who will inspire the electorate with her unassailable integrity. And, if elected, she will restore to the vice presidency the stature, integrity, competence and class that have been so sorely missing in that office for so long.