Leni to go where her prayers lead her

Three years ago, very few people knew her and knew of her.

Next year, she may be the country’s second female vice president.

Lawyer Leni Gerona Robredo was the stay-in-the-background, supportive wife to a very visible public servant, and hands-on mother to three daughters — the youngest of whom she would pick up from school every day.

Then her husband DILG Secretary and Ramon Magsaysay awardee Jesse Robredo perished in a plane crash. She had no choice but to come out of his shadow, and she was a shimmering star — intelligent, articulate, and willing to walk the extra mile so her husband’s legacy would not die with him.

Though at first “200 percent” sure she wouldn’t seek political office, Leni ran and won as Camarines Sur Representative in the 2013 polls.

A month after the elections, I asked her what made her run — the same question probably roiling in her mind right now.

The reason she changed her mind and ran was “not romantic at all,” she told me in an interview in 2013.

“When people are made to run, sinasabi nila,‘nakikita ko kasi that they (the people) need me.’ But it’s not that. Sa akin parang, at first, it was purely political. I have to be very honest. The day that I decided to run, it was because our Party was crumbling in the district. If I did not run, it would have spelled ‘doom’ to the Party. Para sa akin, yung feeling na may mission ako, that the people need me, parang it came after. It came after I started going around already. Pero if you ask me ano ‘yung driving force why I ran, it was purely political. Nakakahiya man aminin, pero it was that. Kapag tinatanong ako, ‘Have you thought of the people who would be pinning their hopes on you?’ I would say, ‘No.’ Sa akin kasi, I always believe that I am not indispensable, at least as a public servant. ‘Yun yung aking pakiramdam. Pero ‘dun sa political side, at that time, I was indispensable. If I do not step in, the Party will break. And if it will break, number one, sayang naman the people na inalagaan ng asawa ko and these are political supporters who have sacrificed so much for my husband.”

Leni Robredo and the author. Photo by Mau Aguasin

 

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Fast forward to 2015. Leni has been formally asked by Liberal Party presidential bet Mar Roxas to be his running mate. Ties run deep between the Roxas and Robredo families. Mar and Jesse weren’t only party mates, Jesse asked Mar to be godfather to his and Leni’s youngest child, Jillian, now 15 years old.

When President Aquino asked Mar to be DILG chief after Jesse’s untimely passing, Mar called Leni up to ask for her blessing first.

Recalling that day, Leni said she was happy Mar was the man the President asked to head the DILG after Jesse.

If she will think along the same lines as she did when she decided to run for Congress in 2013, I think she will agree to be Mar’s running mate.

“I pray for guidance, clarity, courage and peace of mind and heart,” she told me in a text message yesterday. “I will go where they lead me to.”

Mother & daughter pioneer world-class lab services

If you had that gene that would increase your risk for cancer, would you like to know now? Or deal with it later on?

Because of the pioneering efforts of this mother-and-daughter team of Emma Ong and Melissa Ong-Lee, you have a choice.

Filipinos who want to know can avail themselves of the very same test Angelina Jolie reportedly took that made her elect to have a double mastectomy.

Emma, a medical technologist, founded Hi-Precision Diagnostics 19 years ago because she believed, “Everybody deserves high-quality health care.” Emma is also the pioneer behind the SOEN brand of feminine wear, which has become a household word among middle-income Filipinas.

Her husband, Willy Ong, belongs to the family that founded Boysen Paints. Willy and Emma’s daughter Melissa carved a niche of her own and took up Interior Design at the Parsons School of Design in New York, but is now helping her mother run Hi-Precision.

“The fact that my parents started this business and was able to elevate the standard of diagnostics in the Philippines is something I’m really proud of,” says Melissa. “My mom would always say, ‘Do what is right, never shortchange anyone’.”

That is perhaps why their lab immediately got the reputation for accuracy at affordable prices. Doctors would actually advise their patients to have their tests done at Hi-Precision.

The trust isn’t unfounded. According to the svelte Melissa, who designs Hi-Precision’s branches, their lab is ISO 9001:2008 Certified and is licensed by the Department of Health (DOH). Hi-Precision Diagnostics is also the first medical laboratory in the Philippines that allows patients to access and download their results online. The lab has close to 20 branches in Metro Manila and Cebu and employs about 1,000 people, 220 of whom are medical technologists.

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But Emma and Melissa believed they had to go further by offering tests previously available only abroad.

One of these tests is the Myriad myRisk, reportedly the same test taken by Angelina.

The Myriad myRisk Hereditary Cancer panel is a 25-gene panel that identifies an elevated risk for eight important cancers: breast, ovarian, gastric, colorectal, pancreatic, melanoma, prostate and endometrial. According to published reports, about five to 10 percent of all cancers are hereditary.

The test assesses the possibilities of cancer occurrences in an individual, leading to “clinically actionable diagnoses,” according to a Myriad statement. “This represents the most innovative hereditary cancer detection in the world. Myriad harnesses cutting-edge advancements in genetics to properly trace the root cause of cancer even before it starts.”

Melissa admits some people would rather not know “and deal with it when the time comes.”

But she believes the availability of the tests gives Filipinos a “myriad” of options, noting that the Philippines has the highest occurrence of breast cancer in Asia. She believes the test can help save lives.

The test (using blood and saliva samples) also costs significantly less when done at Hi-Precision. You also don’t need to factor in the cost of airfare and hotel accommodations abroad. According to Melissa, Myriad myRisk costs about $3,500 to $4,000 in the US.

“Growing up, I wanted to be a lot of things,” says Melissa. “But one thing for sure is that I wanted to be part of something big.”

And that’s precisely why she’s working at the lab. (You may e-mail me at [email protected].)