Why Leni changed her mind

Lawyer Leni Gerona Robredo won the admiration of many with her grace in the midst of her unspeakable grief after the plane crash that claimed the life of her husband DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo. She not only had to come to terms with her own loss — she had the excruciating task of breaking the sad news to the three daughters who adored their father.

When she finally faced the press as Jesse lay in repose in Naga, she was the picture of calm in adversity, of spiritual steadfastness in the midst of sorrow. No, she didn’t question God for making her worst fear come true. She didn’t blame the pilots of the light plane that plunged to the ocean with her husband in it, or the aide who said he tried but failed to save him. When you see someone like that who could have become the worst of herself in the worst of times, but instead became the best she could be as the worst cascaded on her life, then you cannot help but take notice.

Leni brought to my mind Jacqueline Kennedy’s tribute to her mother-in-law Rose’s courage after the latter lost her third son to a violent death. “God, what a thoroughbred.”

***

After several attempts through several intermediaries, I finally hit the bull’s eye. Mrs. Robredo had agreed to meet with me on Sept. 7 at the Avenue Plaza Hotel in Naga City for an exclusive interview with The Philippine STAR and its sister publication, PeopleAsia magazine. (Coincidentally, the magazine would come off the press on the day Leni filed her candidacy for congressman of Camarines Sur’s third district.) I took the plane while the PeopleAsia staff motored 12 hours on a company vehicle to get to Naga City. We were billeted at the Avenue Plaza Hotel.

I had the opportunity of visiting the original, three-century-old image of Our Lady of Peñafrancia in a sanctuary at the Basilica Minore compound in Naga City (which was kindly arranged by businessman Allan Cu, president of Avenue Plaza). One of my intentions to Our Lady was for the interview with Leni to push through that afternoon. I knew there were many factors that could cause its cancellation, because in her state of grief, Leni could just back out any time. After leaving the sanctuary, I asked my tour guide if we could drive by the Robredo house. I was just curious about how it looked.

I beheld a three-story abode that was sturdy but far from luxurious. There were no security guards, either uniformed or in plain clothes. I saw Judy, one of Leni’s friends, outside the house and I asked her if the interview that afternoon was pushing through. She smiled, said yes and asked, “Why don’t you come in and say hi to Leni?”

Just like that. And I found myself in the Robredo living room where his widow was receiving some friends, like actor Jaime Fabregas, a fellow Bicolano. Leni gave me a warm smile and welcomed me to Naga City. She also thanked me for an article I wrote about her husband, which she read in the morning of his funeral. Yes, she assured me, the interview that afternoon was pushing through.

The house of the Robredos in Naga City.

I thanked Our Lady of Peñafrancia for granting my prayer — in a virtual instant.

* * *

After being delayed for two hours by a road mishap outside Naga City, my team arrived at the Avenue Plaza just in time for the interview. Leni drove herself to the hotel and asked if she may leave before 5 p.m. to pick up her daughter Jillian from school.

At the time, there was a clamor for her to run for senator under the Liberal Party in 2013 and she was “200 percent” sure she wasn’t running. I asked her what would change her mind.

A million signatures, perhaps?

“I think if it would be the only option left for the legacy of Jess to continue,” she answered. “There are so many contenders for the senatorial slate, but my children only have one mother.”

At the time, no one had brought up the idea of a congressional bid, and she in fact had already two candidates in mind. She indicated she was likely to support the one who fared better in the survey. (“Before Jess left,” she recalled, “there was an agreement na idadaan sa survey.”) Little did she know back then that SHE was the one who would top the survey.

I brought up some similarities between her and Cory Aquino, and she was embarrassed at the comparison with the Democracy Icon, who was the commencement speaker when she graduated from UP Diliman in 1986. An essay on Cory and her role in the EDSA Revolution was what she submitted when her then future boss and husband Jesse Robredo asked her to write an essay when she applied for a job at the Bicol River Basin Development Program. Her essay impressed Robredo so much — and the rest is truly history.

“Idol na idol ko siya (Cory Aquino). When she was already President and Jess was already mayor, every chance I could get, he brings me to Malacañang so I could see her. One time, there was a turn-over of garbage trucks and Jess said, ‘Do you want to represent me? She’s going to be there?’ So I represented him.”

Aika Robredo, in an interview, said that her father became who he was due in large part to her mother. Leni also shyly admits that Jesse often told her she was “the wind beneath his wings.”

“I was more comfortable in the background. Actually, I had been helping Jess all throughout the six elections he had. I managed the campaign, I managed the headquarters, I made arrangements but it was always him at the forefront, I’m just in the background.”

Leni said she and Jesse brought out the best in each other. “We have friends na older than us. Away na sila ng away, sila na lang dalawa. Parating sinasabi ni Jess, ‘Sigurado tayo, hindi tayo ganiyan’.” 

What did they have in common?

The author interviewing Leni Robredo at the Avenue Plaza Hotel in Naga City on Sept. 7. Photos by MAU AGUASIN

“Pareho kaming...hindi kami very sociable. Yung we’d rather stay at home. Basically, yung values namin pareho. Pero siya yung mas outgoing between the two of us. Siya na yung sa public side. Parati niyang sinasabi na dalawa lang ang oras niya, oras sa trabaho at oras sa pamilya.”

“He was able to marry power and principle,” Leni says of her late husband, still in awe of him.

I asked her yesterday if she prayed to him before she filed her COC. “Definitely,” she said. “Though I still wish I was given more time to think before deciding. What made me finally decide was I thought of what Jesse would have decided had he been around.”

“I’m still hoping I did the right thing,” she added.

* * *

Perhaps what she said last Sept. 7, the day before Virgin Mary’s birthday (she is a Marian devotee, just like her husband when he was still alive), is what really made her run for a seat in Congress. “If it is the only way to keep my husband’s legacy alive (then I will run)…”

On the day Jesse Robredo was cremated, divers found his bag in the waters off Masbate, where he breathed his last. Inside his bag were a rosary, his appointment book, a shirt and...mothballs! A handyman at home, Jesse bought those mothballs in a hardware in Naga and said he would bring some to Manila to put in his cabinets. He wanted to preserve their things from pests and the ravages of time. “Tawang-tawa ako sa mothballs. Kasi ang hilig-hilig nun mag-kutingting sa bahay,” Leni smiles.

Perhaps, that is what Leni is trying her best to do. With her faith, strength of character and her knowledge — she is gathering all the “mothballs” Jesse left behind to preserve his legacy.

(You may e-mail me at [email protected].)