By Juan Escandor Jr.
NAGA CITY—Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Gerona Robredo relished the memories of her work with the farmers and fisher folks that she trained on paralegal skills to enable them to assert their rights as citizens of this country which she said built the foundation of her concept of public service she is espousing now.
Robredo rode the bus again to her hometown Saturday to attend consultation meeting with the villagers of Caroyroyan in Pili, Camarines Sur who are in the process of legitimizing their occupancy of government-owned property in Pili town, celebrate the 25th anniversary of the non-government organization (NGO) she worked with for nine years, and deliver a speech on violence against women in a women’s congress organized by Metro Naga Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Addressing her former fellow workers and partners in Sentro ng Alternatibong Lingap Paralegal (Saligan), Robredo acknowledged her almost one decade in NGO work as her longest experience as the foundation of her concept of public service. She was shooed-in in politics after her husband Jesse M. Robredo died in a plane crash on Aug. 18, 2012.
Marlon B. Manuel, coordinator of Saligan, the NGO where Robredo worked from 1999-2008, said the vice president was the lead implementer of their program on violence against women back then when she was still the low-key spouse of the high-profile mayor of Naga City.
Manuel described Saligan as an NGO that seeks to change the society by means of strengthening the basic sectors so that they can use the laws and the legal system and push their issues and protect their rights.
“Paralegal training is one of the programs of Saligan but we (Saligan members) are also advocates for policy reforms who endorse and pursue new laws to Congress and local government units,” he said.
Hazel E. Lavitoria, an intern when she started out in Saligan branch in Bicol and now its executive director, considers Robredo as her “mentor who developed my capacity and led me as an alternative lawyer and how to do it.”
Lavatoria said she was with Robredo in so many trainings in remote areas where they had to make do staying anywhere to fulfill their mission in the communities.
“I was having a hard time in one case because it was a difficult case since it was an anti-trafficking in person case. She (Robredo) helped me get through the entire process from how to direct cross examination, handle client, litigate and review pleadings. The accused was convicted,” she narrated.
Lavatoria recalled that the case was an offshoot of the women they rescued, with the help of authorities, from a bar in Naga City.
She said Robredo was still with the Saligan to guide her and the institution even after she resigned in 2009.
Robredo said that the important lesson she learned from serving poor clients as a lawyer was that the poorer they get the greater their willingness to pay for the service.
The Vice President cannot forget how her poor clients sneaked anything, from loose change to candies or local products, into her parked car with its windows left partially opened to cool it down since she was using a car with broken air-condition unit.
“Those were the clients who knew I don’t ask for service fees so that they gave me whatever they can afford to give,” Robredo said.
“Our happiness is not about gaining material benefits but deeper than that. It is the happiness to serve the powerless without expecting anything in return,” speaking in Bicol and sounding like a cliché in front of Saligan workers and partners, she described her fulfillment in working with the basic sectors with a salary that barely met the basic needs and sacrifices that can even cost her life.
Robredo recalled her first NGO assignment in the town of Del Gallego which required her to travel about 100 kilometers from Naga City at the time when the road was still rough and under construction while she was three-month pregnant of her second child.
She reached Del Gallego town after several hours of bumpy ride and immediately conducted the training session while sitting on the floor even as she noticed she was starting to bleed in the house of a fisher folk.
With no option, Robredo endured the same difficult ride back home in Naga City and she was immediately brought to the hospital for medical attention and complete bed rest for several days until she was up again working.
Robredo was also hospitalized and had to wear brace in her neck after an accident injured her while on assignment in Masbate.
She said her father, the late regional trial court Judge Antonio Gerona, would always ask her if she feels working in another institution that he could vouch and recommend, in which she declined every time the topic was brought up.
Robredo finds the value of legally empowering the poor by making them not totally dependent to lawyers in asserting their rights especially in places where legal services are non-existen
“How can the poor sectors fight for their rights if they cannot afford a lawyer and the free legal system is not readily available?” she asked.
Robredo said in this case teaching the poor understand the law and the legal system transforms them to acquire confidence to stand and fight for their rights.
She said the trainings they have imparted had resulted in the formation of volunteers with paralegal knowledge who learned how to make affidavits and conduct legal interviews in the absence of lawyers.
Robredo said her long experience and integration with the poor in her NGO work made her believe that if the poor sectors know and understand the law they gain greater confidence in asserting their rights and respecting the rule of law because they know that the laws are made to protect the citizens.
“Looking back, I realized how deep and meaningful my experience in the NGO in relation to my present responsibility now,” she said.
Robredo said the value of working with the NGO was greatly highlighted when she ran for vice president because all of the candidates she was running against had established their names in politics.
“In my view, since I have stayed for only three years in Congress, my work for almost a decade in the NGO prepared me for my job as Vice President. It is about people empowerment, transparency and accountability which experience and lessons I have learned in my long years working with the basic sectors,” she said.