Maria Leonor "Leni" Gerona Robredo (Tagalog pronunciation: [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. 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.
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. Under her leadership, the OVP also received the ISO 9001: 2015 certification for the office's quality management systems.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-îllégâl Drugs. She has received backlash from government supporters for her being staunchly critical to Duterte's policies such as the war on drugs, counter-insurgency initiatives, COVID-19 pandemic response, and soft stance toward China. She has been a constant target of disinformation, with many articles making false claims about her personal life to discredit her.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. Her campaign, which centered on thwarting another Marcos regime, was noted for the strength of its volunteers and the attendance in its rallies, her popularity among the younger generation. Robredo lost the election, placing second with 15,035,773 votes; her campaign has been observed to have been affected by disinformation against her, as well as her lack of political machinery.
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