Leni Robredo
Maria Leonor "Leni" Robredo (Tagalog: [ˈlɛnɪ ɾɔˈbrɛdɔ]; née Gerona; born April 23, 1965) is a Filipino lawyer and politician who served as the 14th vice president of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022. She previously served as the representative of the 3rd district of Camarines Sur from 2013 to 2016.
In this Philippine name for married women, the birth middle name or maternal family name is Santo Tomas, the birth surname or paternal family name is Gerona, and the marital name is Robredo.
Leni Robredo
Rodrigo Duterte
Office established
Rodrigo Duterte
Chito Cruz
Francis Pangilinan
3
Lawyer
Social activist
Economist
Founder and chairperson of Angat Buhay (2022–)
Robredo narrowly defeated Bongbong Marcos, the son of the ousted dictator and kleptocrat Ferdinand Marcos, in the contested 2016 vice presidential election. After an electoral protest by Bongbong Marcos, the Presidential Electoral Tribunal found no signs of fraud and her lead was slightly widened. She is the second woman to serve as vice president of the Philippines, after Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and the first vice president from the Bicol Region.
Robredo has spearheaded multiple programs in the Office of the Vice President (OVP); her flagship anti-poverty program, Angat Buhay (lit. 'Uplifting Lives'), has helped address key areas including education, rural development, and healthcare, in partnership with more than 300 organizations. During the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines, the OVP under Robredo responded by providing free shuttle services for frontline workers, swab tests, telehealth services, and raised funds for relief operations across the country. Robredo was awarded by the government of Thailand in 2016 for her work and advocacy in women's empowerment and gender equality.[1] Under her leadership, the OVP also received the ISO 9001: 2015 certification for the office's quality management systems.[2][3]
During her vice presidency, she served as the chair of the Liberal Party and de facto leader of the opposition to President Rodrigo Duterte's administration, where she was appointed by Duterte and briefly served as the chair of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council and the co-chairperson of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs. She has received backlash from government supporters for her being staunchly critical to Duterte's policies such as the war on drugs,[4] counter-insurgency initiatives,[5] COVID-19 pandemic response,[6] and soft stance toward China.[7] She has been a constant target of disinformation, with many articles making false claims about her personal life to discredit her.[8]
Robredo announced her presidential campaign in the 2022 presidential elections with Liberal Party leader and Senator Francis Pangilinan as her running mate.[9] However, she widely lost the election to Bongbong Marcos.[10][11]
Early life and education
Leni Robredo was born as Maria Leonor Santo Tomas Gerona on April 23, 1965, in Naga, Camarines Sur, Philippines.[12][13] She was the first of three children born to Naga City Regional Trial Court Judge Antonio Gerona (c. 1933–2013) and Salvacion Santo Tomas (1936–2020).[14]
Robredo attended the basic education department of Universidad de Sta. Isabel in Naga, graduating from elementary school in 1978, and from high school in 1982. She earned her degree in Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of the Philippines School of Economics at UP Diliman in 1986, and proceeded to study law at the University of Nueva Caceres, graduating in 1992.[13][15] Gerona chose to temporarily forego law studies and instead decided to work as a researcher for the Bicol River Basin Development Program (BRBDP),[16] a government agency tasked with integrated area development planning in the three provinces of the Bicol Region.[17] Here she met then-program director Jesse Robredo, who would eventually become her husband.[17] She passed the bar exams on her second attempt in 1996 and was admitted to the Integrated Bar of the Philippines in May 1997.[18][19]
Following her admission, Robredo served in the Public Attorney's Office,[20] a role in which she often took up the defense for cases pursued by her husband, who by then had become Mayor of Naga.[16]
From 1998 to 2008, Robredo became the coordinator of Sentro ng Alternatibong Lingap Panligan (SALIGAN), a Naga-based alternative legal support group.[16] SALIGAN's work[16] aimed to encourage young legal professionals to take on leadership roles,[21] and involved visiting distant rural communities to provide legal services to residents who would otherwise have little or no access to such services,[22] as well as conducting legal advocacy by proposing amendments and new laws based on the needs of these marginalized communities. Later, the group's focus shifted to include helping rural women to acquire capital in order to participate in competitive markets.[22]
In addition, Robredo founded the Lakas ng Kababaihan ng Naga Federation (Women Power of Naga Federation), an organization that provides training and livelihood opportunities for women, in 1989.[23]
In 2012, Robredo was named the chairperson of the Liberal Party in Camarines Sur.[24][25][26][27][28]
Presidential styles of
Leni Robredo
Remembrance
Pathologist Dr. Raymundo Lo named a pink orchid hybrid after Robredo. Rhyncholaeliocattleya Leni Robredo, which was only named upon Robredo's announcement of her candidacy for president in October 2021, was said took seven years to bloom since its pollination from two orchid species. The flower is not yet in commercial production.[154]
In July 2022, the Ateneo de Manila University announced the discovery of two new species of water scavenger beetles. One of them, Anacaena angatbuhay, named after Robredo's Angat Buhay program, had been discovered in Ifugao.[155][156][157]