Iloilo ready for Leni

By Herbert Vego

VICE-PRESIDENT Leni Robredo is arriving in Iloilo City today for a two-day sortie, kicking off with a grand motorcade from the airport to the main arteries of the city. If I heard Mayor Jerry P. Treñas right, her overnight stay is aimed at reaching out to local government and civic leaders.

I dare not estimate the number of four-wheeled and two-wheeled motorists participating; I could be underestimating if I say 10,000.

What makes Leni motorcades and meetings with plain folks distinguishable is their spontaneity.  People from all walks of life come at their own expense, not transported in exchange for a “attendance fee”.

It does not take any commercial surveys to read the message behind the “pink multitude” shrieking and cheering for the 56-year-old lady wherever she goes. Their warm reception would negate farcical surveys intended to downplay her popularity.

These unexpected crowds flocking to see her have already belied early mind-conditioning surveys showing her at the tail-end of the probable presidential candidates.

“The surveys now say I am No. 2” she recently said on TV, “But in the early days, I was on the 6^th place.”

Since Sara Duterte-Carpio had consistently hogged the top spot for presidency in the SWS, Pulse Asia and Octa surveys, why did she eventually finalize her certificate of candidacy for vice-presidency instead?

Had she known that, contrary to published surveys, it’s Leni leading the pack?”

On the regional front, any perceptive Ilonggo would go no wrong in predicting that the majority of the 4.8 million voters in Western Visayas would vote for Leni.

In a Facebook post, Mayor Treñas wrote why he had decided to support Robredo without clearance from the National Unity Party (NUP) where he belongs: “When you understand the cry of the community, we should not wait for the click of the camera to act. As a public servant and a lawyer, I should stand firm for the welfare of my people. As the father of the city, I must also choose the right leader to guide and lead us – someone who has shown an unyielding courage in the face of adversity, someone who has proven to be effective despite the limited resources, and someone who has no traces of corruption.”

VP Leni’s strongest point is her being the only presidential candidate with consistent do-it-right track record despite tempting opportunities for self-aggrandizement. For example, she decries the futility of the drug war that turns a blind eye on drug lords close to Malacañang. No doubt she had heard of Peter Lim.

Suffice it to say here that when in November 2019 President Rodrigo Duterte named her “drug czar” with supervisory jurisdiction over all law agencies enforcing crackdown on illegal drugs, she demanded a serious probe on extra-judicial killings and went to the extent of asking the United Nations to intervene. That was “good” enough to earn her a dismissal paper from the President.

By then, the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) had killed some 7,000 drug dealers and users during in raids, always citing self-defense.

Corollary to that, Sen. Francis Pangilinan (now Robredo’s vice-presidential running mate) interpreted her appointment as the President’s “desperate attempt at blaming others for the mess they themselves created.”

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THE LYDA AWARDS

THE nominees for the Live Your Dream Awards (LYDA) 2021 have been chosen from among the female students in Iloilo who belong to hard-up families. LYDA is a yearly project of the Soroptimist International, a global women’s organization whose members volunteer to improve the lives of women and girls through programs leading to social and economic empowerment. It is particularly concerned with providing women and girls access to education, as this is the most effective path to self-determination.

The Soroptimists are committed to supporting the women who receive their Live Your Dream Awards while on their way to making dreams come true.

As the saying goes, “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”

The president of Soroptimist International Iloilo is Leila de la Llana while the LYDA committee chair is Ebonia Seraspe, with  Ida Siason and Rosario Asong as members.

The Soroptimist-Iloilo has chosen five LYDA nominees, one of whom has been declared the winner. She is Presiel La Verne Loreno, 20, of Brgy Cabudian, Duenas, IIoilo. A BS in Respiratory Therapy student of the Central Philippine University (CPU), she comes from a broken family, abandoned by both parents, but shoulders the herculean task of supporting two sisters and a brother. While studying, she works as a house help.

The four other nominees include:

Kaye Marhy Taninas, 21, of Banker’s Village 6, Dungon. Iloilo City. She is a scholar of CPU for a degree in BS Accountancy. Orphaned at the age of 12, she lives with a guardian. She and her sister run an ukay-ukay business.

Erika May V. Bercera, 20, of Brgy Bolilao, Mandurriao, Iloilo City. She is an orphan enrolled at CPU for a degree in BS Accountancy. She was only 9 when her father died, 16 when her mother died. She ekes a living through part-time jobs and online selling.

Marjorie De La Cruz, 20, of Westville Subdivision, Pandac, Pavia; a BS Accountancy student at CPU. She and her brother, 16, live with their mother and grandmother. Abandoned by their dad, she works as an on-call caregiver.

Ma. Nicole Uriarte,18, of Brgy Palapala-Rizal, Iloilo City, is a full-time student at the University of Iloilo (UI) for a degree in BS Accountancy/Business Management. She lives with her father, a laborer, and mother who runs a convenience store.