Leni Robredo: Let’s build bridges, not walls

Vice President Leni Robredo. PHOTO from Leni Robredo Media Bureau

Looking back on her first 100 days in office, Vice President Leni Robredo reaffirmed her core advocacy of ending poverty as she emphasized the need for “mercy and compassion regardless of political beliefs” in improving the lives of the poorest Filipinos.

In sharp contrast to the punitive character of President Duterte’s brutal war on drugs and criminality, the Vice President called for inclusiveness in helping 26 million Filipinos rise above poverty.

“Our diversity and difference must never be a barrier to reach out to each other when anyone is in need. The problems we face require building bridges, not walls,” Robredo said in a statement yesterday.

The former Camarines Sur representative, who is also chair of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, said the “complicated issue” of poverty necessitated an apolitical perspective.

“In combating it, we need to look beyond our political lenses to be able to make a difference to  our fellow Filipinos who suffer from it every day,” she said in a statement.

Robredo said she spent much of her first 100 days traveling to the farthest and poorest towns, including Pola, Oriental Mindoro; Palo, Leyte, and Kauswagan, Lanao del Sur. She and her staff devoted “a lot of time toward meeting our country’s most marginalized communities,” she said.

She also met with representatives of private corporations and international and humanitarian organizations to find solutions to problems in health and nutrition, education, hunger and food security, rural development and women empowerment because “no single group can do this by themselves.”

“The Philippine government, for example, cannot succeed in its antipoverty efforts without the support of civil society, development partners, and the Filipino public. No matter how well-intentioned our campaign is against poverty, we will achieve little if we do not work together,” she said.

Speaking in Leyte last month, Robredo cited reports that say over 26 million Filipinos are “mired in poverty,” including 12 million who “lead lives of extreme impoverishment.”

“But going by mere numbers puts us at risk of forgetting the ordinary Filipino who suffers from the brutal injustice of poverty. Statistics can unwittingly erase the face of the poor Filipino and render them invisible,” she said then.

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