Aside from being an “extraordinary housewife” as she was described by Senator Imee Marcos, Vice President Leni Robredo is also an “actual degree holder,” her spokesman said on Wednesday, October 27.
“VP Leni is also an ‘extraordinary lawyer,’ a ‘productive legislator,’ an ‘actual degree holder’ (several times over in fact), and, of course, the ‘duly elected Vice President.’ Just spreading some truth and love this #kakampinkwednesday,” Lawyer Barry Gutierrez, her spokesman, said on Twitter.
Gutierrez was reacting to the remarks made by Marcos on TeleRadyo when she was asked to describe the rivals of her brother former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., who is vying to return his family to Malacañang.
During the interview, the senator described Robredo as an “extraordinary housewife” that other candidates should “never underestimate.”
Robredo won against her brother in the 2016 vice presidential race. The election protest by Marcos Jr. was unanimously junked by the Supreme Court in February this year.
READ: Robredo lawyer says it’s ‘game over’ for Marcos after unanimous SC ruling
With Gutierrez emphasizing that Robredo is an “actual” degree holder, he threw shade at the Marcoses who have doubtful college degrees despite claiming otherwise.
Robredo herself is an Economics degree holder from the University of the Philippines in Diliman, a law degree holder from the University of Nueva Caceres, a bar passer, and also took up her master’s degree in law at the San Beda University.
While Marcos Jr. claims that he is a degree holder from the prestigious Oxford University, the school administration itself cleared that his “special diploma in social studies” is not equivalent to a degree.
READ: Oxford PH society clarifies: BBM did not finish his degree
Oxford said that according to their records, Marcos Jr. “did not complete his degree, but was awarded a Special Diploma in Social Studies in 1978.”
The senator herself also claimed that she earned a degree from Princeton University, but the prestigious institution also denied that they have records of her being awarded a degree.
READ: Robredo raps Imee for lying about the schools she graduated from
Meanwhile, Dapat Si Leni, one of Robredo’s volunteer groups noted that this is the first time they agreed with a Marcos.
But they hit the senator for the “insult laced with praise,” saying that describing the Vice President as housewife was an “attack” against women “who bear the heaviest responsibility to take care of the family.”
“To imply that a housewife needs to be extraordinary in order to be considered as a serious contender in positions of leadership is a step backwards achieving genuine women empowerment in the country,”its statement read.
The group said that Robredo’s “strength” does not come from being extraordinary, but from her being “a person of honesty, authenticity, and integrity.”