The lack of a Cabinet position in the Duterte administration taught Vice President Leni Robredo the old Filipino saying, “mamaluktot kapag maiksi ang kumot (curl up when the blanket is short)” that forced her office to be creative to “expand our mandate.”
Five years into her term, Robredo is already looking at what her office could’ve achieved if only she “had good working relations” with President Duterte.
“When I became Vice President, I’m supposed to be the second-highest official of the land but I discovered, Father, that I don’t have that much mandate. If you look at the Constitution, my only mandate is succession. And our office, the Office of the Vice President, has one of the smallest budget in the entire bureaucracy,” she told Fr. Francis Lucas at the 5th Asian Philanthropic Development Conference.
Although she was given the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) post when the President first came into office, Robredo decided to resign after being told not to attend Cabinet meetings.
In November 2019, she also became an anti-drug czar but Duterte fired her after serving for only 18 days.
“Other difficulties faced by my office pushed us to be creative. It pushed us to be innovative. In Filipino, Father, it’s called mamaluktot (curl up),” she said, referring to the Filipino saying that one should make work what one is dealt with.
“That was exactly what we did,” the vice president added.
READ: ‘Six years is too long to do nothing relevant’ – VP Robredo
She now feels that not being given a Cabinet post was “actually a blessing” because it pushed her and her team “to explore other areas where we can still—we can expand our mandate, convert our office into a more advocacy-heavy one because it was purely ceremonial before, and it allowed us to collaborate with many different sectors.”
Robredo is particularly proud of giving “spaces” for people to help their fellowmen, which made her realize that Filipinos want to extend as much help as they can.
The programs being done under the Office of the Vice President (OVP) were honed by their experiences in the past five years, Robredo said, adding that another blessing to her was her young and committed staff who helped her visions come to life.
As of December 2020, OVP’s flagship anti-poverty program Angat Buhay has partnered with 330 organizations mobilizing a total of P441.14 million worth of resources to assist 341,779 families and 221,122 individuals in 381 communities nationwide.
READ: Robredo says Angat Buhay is her ‘best legacy’
Also last year, the OVP had to allocate more than P500 million of its fund for COVID-19 response. To date, it has provided personal protective equipment, medical supplies, hygiene kits, and hot meals to medical frontliners.
Robredo also led her team in providing telemedicine services, mobile COVID-19 testing, and drive-through vaccination facility.