Leni Robredo served as the 14th Vice President of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022. She was a lawyer and long-time human rights activist before entering politics. As Vice President, she spearheaded anti-poverty programs and led the country's COVID-19 response. In 2022, she ran for President as an independent candidate but lost to Ferdinand Marcos Jr., whose father she had previously defeated in the 2016 vice presidential election. Robredo focused her campaign on preventing another Marcos regime and received strong volunteer support, though disinformation negatively impacted her campaign.

1. VICE PRESIDENT OF THE
PHILIPPINES
Leni Robredo

2. LENI ROBREDO
• Maria Leonor "Leni" Gerona Robredo (Tagalog: [ˈlɛnɪ ɾɔˈbɾɛdɔ]; born Maria Leonor
Santo Tomas Gerona; April 23, 1965) is a Filipino lawyer and politician who served
as the 14th vice president of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022.
• She was the wife of the late Jesse Robredo, who was interior secretary from 2010 until his
death in 2012. A long-time human rights lawyer and social activist, she eventually ran for
public office and was elected in 2013 as the 3rd district representative of Camarines Sur, her
home province. She served in this position for three years, writing legislation on agrarian
reform, people empowerment, and anti-corruption. She then assumed the vice presidency in
2016, after winning that year's election. Robredo defeated Bongbong Marcos, son of the
ousted dictator and kleptocrat Ferdinand Marcos, by a narrow margin of 263,473 votes.
Bongbong Marcos protested the results, alleging that her party, the Liberal Party, had
manipulated the votes. However, the Supreme Court found no evidence of fraud and even
reported that her actual lead over Marcos was higher at 278,566.[1] Robredo 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.

3. • 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.[2] Under her leadership, the OVP also
received the ISO 9001: 2015 certification for the office's quality management
systems

4. • 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,[5] counter-insurgency initiatives,[6] COVID-19 pandemic
response,[7] and soft stance toward China.[8] She has been a constant target
of disinformation, with many articles making false claims about her personal life to
discredit her.

5. • Robredo ran for president as an independent candidate in
the 2022 Philippine presidential election with Liberal Party leader
Senator Francis Pangilinan as her running mate.[10] Her
campaign, which centered on thwarting another
Marcos regime,[11] was noted for the strength of its volunteers and
the attendance in its rallies, her popularity among the younger
generation.[12] Robredo lost the election, placing second with
15,035,773 votes;[13][14] her campaign has been observed to have
been affected by disinformation against her, as well as her lack
of political machinery.

6. EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION
• Maria Leonor Santo Tomas Gerona was born on April 23, 1965,
in Naga, Camarines Sur, Philippines.[17][18] 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).[19]
• 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.[18][20] She passed the bar exams in 1997.

7. • Gerona chose to temporarily forego law studies and instead
decided to work as a researcher for the Bicol River Basin
Development Program (BRBDP),[22] a government agency tasked
with integrated area development planning in the three provinces
of the Bicol Region.[23] Here she met then-program director Jesse
Robredo, who would eventually become her husband.[23]
• Having passed the bar on her second attempt in 1996[18][21] and
admitted in May 1997,[24] Robredo served in the Public Attorney's
Office,[25] a role in which she often took up the defense for cases
pursued by her husband, who by then had become Mayor of
Naga.

8. • From 1998 to 2008, Robredo became the coordinator of Sentro ng
Alternatibong Lingap Panligan (SALIGAN), a Naga-based alternative legal
support group.[22] SALIGAN's work[22] aimed to encourage young legal
professionals to take on leadership roles,[26] and involved visiting distant rural
communities to provide legal services to residents who would otherwise have
little or no access to such services,[27] 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.
• From 1998 to 2008, Robredo became the coordinator of Sentro ng
Alternatibong Lingap Panligan (SALIGAN), a Naga-based alternative legal
support group.[22] SALIGAN's work[22] aimed to encourage young legal
professionals to take on leadership roles,[26] and involved visiting distant rural
communities to provide legal services to residents who would otherwise have
little or no access to such services,[27] 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.

9. POLITICAL CAREER
• Robredo ran in Camarines Sur's 3rd congressional district during
the Philippine general elections of 2013. On May 16, 2013, she
was proclaimed winner, beating Nelly Favis-Villafuerte
(of Nationalist People's Coalition/United Nationalist Alliance), wife
of former Congressman Luis Villafuerte[34] and member of the
politically powerful Villafuerte dynasty.
• During her term in congress, Robredo was the vice chairman of
the House committees on good governance, public accountability,
and revision of laws, and a member of 11 other house
panels.[36] She was known for being a strong advocate of
the Freedom of Information Act,[37] and a strong supporter of
the Bangsamoro Basic Law.

10. • Participatory governance and transparency were the major objectives
and thrusts of Robredo's legislative agenda. The first law Robredo
authored in congress was the Full Disclosure Policy Bill (HB 19), which
would have mandated all government agencies and their sub-units and
projects to disclose their budget and financial transactions in a
conspicuous manner "without any requests from the
public."[40] Concerned that the marginalized sector should not be
denied access to government frontline services and public meetings
based on their attire,[41] she sponsored the Open Door Policy Act
(House Bill No. 6286),[42] which prohibits government offices and
agencies from implementing strict dress codes