Page 20 - UPAAA GRC '21 Souvenir Journal

OPENING PROGRAM - Guest Speaker

Profile of Honorable Maria Leonor Gerona Robredo
14th Vice President of the Philippines

Maria Leonor Gerona Robredo is the 14th Vice President of the Philippines. As a human rights

lawyer, she dedicated her life to public service, representing those who have no means of
defending themselves. Months after the death of her husband Secretary Jesse M. Robredo in
2012, she was urged by the people of the Third District of Camarines Sur to run as their
representative in the House of Representatives. She ran and won the congressional seat in

2013 by a landslide. She served for one term as District Representative before she ran for the
Vice Presidency in the 2016 elections.

During her stint as Representative of Camarines Sur, she worked with fellow lawmakers to pass

seven bills into law. Some of these were the Graphic Health Warnings Act, Sangguniang
Kabataan Reform Act of 2015, and Open High School System Act. She was also the Vice
Chairman of the Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability and the

Committee on Revision of Laws. She also was a member of the Committees on Appropriations,
Bicol Recovery and Economic Development, Climate Change, Human Rights, Land Use, Local
Government, People’s Participation, Rural Development, Suffrage and Electoral Reforms,
Welfare of Children, and Women and Gender Equality where she actively lobbied for bills in

favor of her advocacies.

As Vice President, she introduced two major programs. "Angat Buhay", a program geared

towards raising the quality of life of every Filipino family. The five key advocacy areas of the
program are nutrition and food security, universal healthcare, education, rural development,
and women empowerment; and "Istorya ng Pag-asa", a program that aims to spread hope and

positivity by featuring extraordinary stories of ordinary Filipinos through words and portraits
shown at events, exhibits, and social media.

Leni Gerona 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
Bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of the Philippines Diliman in 1986, and
proceeded to study law at the University of Nueva Caceres, graduating in 1992. She passed
the bar exams in 1997