Magsaysay Foundation refutes ‘erroneous’ claim vs Jesse Robredo

The late Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/ JONAS CABILES SOLTES

The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF) has belied a baseless allegation of an anonymous website that the late Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo received an award in 2000 supposedly because of “PR work and lobbying.”

The RMAF trustees, led by President Carmencita Abella, said the claim made by the blog “We Are Collective” that former vice mayor and now Camarines Sur Rep. Gabby Bordado allegedly lobbied Robredo’s prestigious Magsaysay Award for Government Service was “erroneous and unfair.”

READ: Leni Robredo slams ‘Naga Leaks’ for attacking ‘defenseless’ Jesse

“The allegation that Jesse Robredo won the Magsaysay Award because of some person’s lobbying efforts HAS NO BASIS IN FACTS. There is no person by the name of Gabby Bordado (as cited in the “collective.com.ph” blog) who was involved in the RMAF’s review, deliberation, and selection of Jesse Robredo as the 2000 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for Government Service,” the foundation said in a statement released on Wednesday.

“The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation considers Jesse Robredo a fully deserving and highly respected Ramon Magsaysay laureate,” it added.

The RMAF trustees emphasized that the foundation had not allowed “any lobbying, PR, or other similar attempts” to influence the selections of its awardees in the past 58 years.

“Any such attempts, whether in the nomination or the selection process, have been quickly and firmly sanctioned,” they said.

“The Foundation cautions all readers to fact-check anonymous and undocumented claims about the Ramon Magsaysay Award, in order to avoid making erroneous and unfair conclusions concerning the Award and/or the Ramon Magsaysay Awardees,” the statement added.

The anonymous blog was behind the so-called “Naga Leaks” attacks against Robredo and her widow, Vice President Leni Robredo, linking the late Interior Secretary to illegal gambling and drug trade in their hometown.

READ: ‘They can’t silence us,’ Robredo says of ‘Naga Leaks’

The Vice President dismissed the false stories against her as an attempt to silence her from being vocal on certain issues. Since resigning from the Cabinet of President Rodrigo Duterte, Robredo has openly criticized the administration’s brutal war on drugs and plans to revive death penalty amid the spate of drug-related killings in the country. IDL