Leni Robredo

Maria Leonor "Leni" Gerona Robredo (Tagalog: [ˈlɛnɪ ɾɔˈbrɛdɔ]; née Gerona; born April 23, 1965) is a Filipino lawyer, stateswoman and politician who has been serving as the 18th mayor of Naga since 2025, having previously served as the 14th vice president of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022 under President Rodrigo Duterte. Robredo is the second female vice president of the Philippines, after Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and the first from the Bicol Region. She represented Camarines Sur in the Philippine House of Representatives from 2013 to 2016. She later announced her candidacy for the 2016 vice presidential election as the running mate of Mar Roxas. She won the election, defeating Senator Bongbong Marcos by a narrow margin. She 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-Illegal Drugs. She has received backlash from government supporters for her being staunchly critical to Duterte's policies such...