Let Leni Lead

This is a critical moment in our country’s history. The president we elect on May 9 will determine what the Philippines will be like in the next several decades. Will we remain a country where corruption becomes accepted as part of our daily life or shall we finally, as a people, make an effort to bring back morality? Will we remain a nation ravaged by poverty, where justice is given to the highest bidder and where people continue to believe that the only way to escape is to migrate to another country?

Perhaps I have become too cynical but I have lost faith in all these calls to read the programs and proposed policies of the candidates. These programs are usually drafted by academic and technical experts who are usually paid to perform these tasks. It is not what the candidate says that matters but what the crafted statements say so beautifully.

Election after election, we hear the same promises of eliminating corruption, reducing prices of commodities, providing jobs, housing and medical care. But every president that we have elected in the past who made these promises has disappointed us.

I believe that what we need is a president who will implement these promises. We are looking for someone who does not make the usual tired promises of increasing jobs, reducing prices and eliminating corruption. We do this not by reading their platforms but by looking at the kind of lives they have led. Their personal lifestyle will tell us what kind of president they will be – whether they will seriously implement the policies.

This is the major reason I urge everyone to vote for Leni Robredo for president in the May 9 elections.  She has been working for the poor and those deprived of justice even before she entered public life. Juan Ponce Enrile asked what kind of law practice she performed. He proceeded to name the types of lawyers he knew. A trial lawyer? A corporate lawyer? A tax lawyer? A patent or copywrite (sic) lawyer? A tech lawyer? Lamentably limited, of course. And even saying that Leni was “not yet a lawyer, in the full sense of the word.”

Leni said it best herself in her reply on Wednesday, 27 April when she said that she was a “developmental lawyer engaged in public interest cases like defending the land rights of Sumilao farmers.” She quotes the definition of developmental lawyering as fundamentally for those that have been historically, culturally and economically marginalized and disenfranchised. Her final words, “You defend the rich. I defend the poor. We are not the same.”

It can be said therefore that her entire life, including her professional career, was dedicated to working for social justice.

While the vast majority in the legal profession was focused on servicing the lawyering needs of the business firms, landlords, rich individuals, Leni devoted her whole career to providing legal services to those deprived of social justice like the Sumilao farmers.

Even in her personal lifestyle, Leni remains distinct from the other candidates. For example, all the other major presidential candidates live in mansions located in exclusive enclaves like Forbes Park and Ayala Alabang. Leni retains only one residence, her simple middle class home in Naga. We remember the story of how, as elected congressman, she would go home every weekend and take a bus from Batasan in Quezon City to go home in Naga. She lives in a condo of her in-laws in Manila.

All the other major presidential candidates have adopted unity as central to their platforms, and yet no one has really demonstrated the ability to unify the different cultural, economic and religious factions in society, unlike Leni who has demonstrated this capability. This is reflected in the diverse groups that have openly declared their support for her.

In a previous column, I mentioned that no one has been able to really unite such a diversity of groups. She has received endorsements of many bishops and priests in the Catholic Church, while at the same time receiving the public endorsement of the largest Muslim organization in the country, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Leni has also received the support of a large number of businessmen, even Big Business. Two such examples are Ramon del Rosario Jr., former president of Makati Business Club, one of the most prominent business organizations in the country. Another is Jose Cuisia Jr., former ambassador to the US and Central Bank governor. Both were awarded the Management Man of the Year by the Management Association of the Philippines.

At the same time, Leni Robredo has also received the endorsement of Kilusang Mayo Uno, considered by many as the radical labor organization with leftist ideology.

These two groups of business and labor with drastically opposing views have seen Leni’s genuine interest to help the “laylayan” of society, not through platforms and campaign speeches alone but through her actual track record, her performance long before government service. These are real examples and not just propaganda of Leni’s ability to unify even conflicting groups.

And wasn’t unity in our fragmented society what Leni had always been striving for? She attempted to do this in speaking to other presidential contenders, hoping to unify them as a strong force. Not counting herself as a possible candidate then – thus, the late decision to be a presidential candidate herself when her attempts failed.

We truly want a brighter future for our children and grandchildren, a society where each and every individual, rich or poor, has equal access to justice.  And where the struggle to erase poverty and corruption becomes a genuine one, going beyond lip service and motherhood statements.

It is obvious that in the light of this, we must let Leni lead.

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