(SPOT.ph) The sudden and tragic death of then-DILG Sec. Jesse Robredo in August 2012 put his widow, now Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo, on everyone's radar. The lawyer and mom of three is again making headlines for being the Liberal Party's preferred candidate for vice president to Mar Roxas, with many clamoring for her to say yes. While she has yet to formally announce her candidacy, Senate President Franklin Drilon today came forward saying that it is a done deal, in an interview with ABS-CBN's Umagang Kay Ganda.
Much has been said and will perhaps still be said about her in the coming days, but here are a few personal details about Leni Robredo that you probably didn't know about.
1. Leni starts the morning with a cup of green tea, no coffee. She drinks cups and cups of green tea all throughout the day too, just like water. But she eats junk food, too. Favorites include Choc-Nut, Cheetos Jalapeño, and Cheetos Puffs.
2. Leni loves to read and has an extensive collection of books at home. She especially enjoys reading biographies, and novels by James Patterson, John Grisham, and Tom Clancy.
3. When the family goes on trips, Leni plans the itineraries. She does the research on hotels, cheap air fares, what to do and see, and how to get from one place to another.
4. Leni has a permanent neck injury, which she got from a car accident years ago. Most days she doesn’t feel any pain. But when it does come, she wears a neck brace. Jesse used to put her on a traction machine for about half an hour a day.
5. Leni is a frustrated pianist. She took lessons for 10 years but never really got very far. She says her daughters are very good though, and she gets a high listening to them play classical pieces.
6. Leni doesn’t like going to the gym, and rarely uses her treadmill at home. But she enjoys walking and biking outdoors, especially when home in Naga.
7. When she has a bit of downtime, she enjoys playing Sudoku and Flow Free on her iPad to de-stress.
8. Leni is very organized. On her computer hard drive are multiple lists pertaining to her household: what’s in the pantry, what’s in the bodega, what books and magazines are in her collection, catalogued photographs. Everything in her household is also labeled: the food closet, the medicine cabinet, school and office supplies drawers, etc.
9. Her children, Aika, Tricia, and Jillian, say she is a tiger mom, though Leni denies it. When they were growing up, she made color-coded outlines for their lessons. She checked all their notebooks every day to make sure they did they school work correctly. She also required her children to be good at one musical instrument and one sport. Aika plays the piano (her favorite composers are Rachmaninoff and Chopin), swims, and plays table tennis; Tricia, a medical student, plays the piano and violin, and swims too. Jillian plays the guitar, is a champion swimmer, and plays table tennis. “My children are my world,” Leni says. “Everything else stops when they need me.”
10. Leni’s celebrity crush? Piolo Pascual. She has yet to meet him in person.
Yvette Fernandez is the author of Simply Jesse: The Story of Jesse Robredo, a children's book published by the Dream Big Books imprint of Summit Books.
