My choices for prez, VP (2)

WHY AM I for Leni Robredo? Simple. She represents the change we want, and so desperately need, in Philippine politics and politicians. How so?

Item: She has been exposed to the best in Philippine politics by osmosis, since 1991 through her husband, the late great Jesse Robredo, who transformed Naga from a mediocre city into one of the most awarded cities, both nationally and internationally. Transparency, accountability, and the use of people power to facilitate the changeover were practiced since Day 1. People’s councils were a reality—not just words, where Jesse was concerned. And Leni was by his side while all these were being accomplished.

Item: After she married him, she studied law (she holds a degree in economics from UP Diliman) at the University of Nueva Caceres. She used her law not to make money for herself, but to empower the people: In the Public Attorney’s Office and later with Saligan (an alternative legal support group), she gave legal aid and worked with the marginalized sectors—farmers, fishers, battered and abused women and children.

She founded an NGO (not a family enterprise, as most politicians establish, but a legitimate one): the Lakas ng Kababaihan ng Naga. In other words, she is what every politician makes himself/herself out to be but is not: a champion of the poor. And this was exemplified when the Sumilao farmers, marching from Bukidnon to Manila, stopped by Naga. They remember that she made them feel like kings, treating them almost royally. No wonder they have recreated their march to Manila for Leni and Mar.

Item: She refused to run for mayor of Naga when term limits prevented her husband from running again, bucking pressure from him and political leaders. How many wives would do that?

Item: She ran for Congress with utmost reluctance (most politicians are dying to run), and she beat her rival, who was the matriarch of a dynasty in her province and who wished to succeed her husband. By a vote of 80 percent-20 percent, on a campaign that was mostly shoe-leather (house-to-house), hardly any money involved (she had none).

Item: Her roughly 15 years doing propoor, propeople work is reflected in her advocacies in her almost three years in Congress. She has been extremely busy, with bills that either improve governance, or are propoor. The first she filed was the full disclosure bill, mandating all government agencies down the line to disclose all budget and financial transactions even without any request from the public. Then she shepherded the Tax Incentives and Management Transparency Act, which requires the disclosure of all incentives received by businesses. She actively supports the proposed Freedom of Information Act, with one tweak that makes it more people-friendly: The agencies have to upload on the Open Data Philippines website all their financial documents whether or not there is any demand for it. All these have to do with transparency and accountability.

The other measures authored or supported by her have titles that are self-explanatory: the antidynasty bill, the participatory budget process bill, the people empowerment bill, the proposed Healthy Beverage Options Act, the bill creating an Agrarian Reform Commission to validate the accomplishments of and investigate violations against the CARP (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program), and the open-door policy bill (which removes any dress code requirements of government offices so that the poor can come in anytime). All propoor, propeople.

Item: And we all have seen the picture of Congresswoman Robredo waiting for the Naga-bound bus, no aides, no trappings of royalty, carrying her own luggage. She sleeps in the bus. I have been to the Robredo house in Naga—a typical middle-class one, no luxuries. The Robredo condo in Metro Manila is as tiny as you can get. And, of course, we read that on the fateful day of her husband’s death, it was she who drove to the airport to fetch him. Contrast that with the lifestyles of most of her colleagues in the House, including the party-list ones, who revel in the luxury of cars and drivers and security backups, and living it up.

Item: What you see is what you get. She does her homework. She tells you like it is, and will not change her views depending on who she is talking to. Straightforward. Respectful. Gracious. And as honest as the day is long.

What do you end up with? A husband and wife, after 25 years of marriage and maybe 20 years in politics, with no wealth, explained or unexplained. With outstanding records in their political areas, where they have truly made a difference in terms of helping their constituents. Politicians whose aim was to serve the people, not make the people serve them.

Contrast this record with that of her opponents: Dynasts (Cayetano, Escudero, Marcos). People who think they are above the law (Honasan, Trillanes, with their coup attempts—but only against women presidents). People who can talk from both sides of their mouth.

And those are some of the minuses. Don’t they have pluses? Of course they do. But the minuses outweigh them, especially those that involve legislation that they did not support or they watered because of lobbying from big business. Tsk.

Like Mar Roxas, Leni is head and shoulders above her rivals. She is a breath of fresh air in the rancid political atmosphere of greed and self-interest.

But to give her all the room she needs, we also need Mar as president. They have the same values, the same love of country. And any other president (I will weep for the country if that occurs) will unduly limit Leni’s potential. So it has to be Mar-Leni.