The Loren Legarda I know

The Loren Legarda I know is not a senator or a journalist but a mom before anything else. She makes it home in time for dinner and asks about my day at school. She calls me when I’m out of the house and worries when I don’t answer the phone. She thinks of everything — from what I should pack for college to what time I should leave for the dentist — all of which she ticks off the never-ending checklist in her head.

She sometimes thinks she’s Martha Stewart. She plants her favorite herbs in the garden and plays interior decorator in the living room. She micromanages every detail in the kitchen, even though she can’t cook, because she can do just about everything else.

She’s a regular mom in so many other ways. She’s terrible with technology, but swears that the iPad we bought her one Mother’s Day changed her life. Not only can she now answer e-mails on the road, but also plug in her earphones and sing along to Celine Dion. She cries watching sad movies, gushes at romantic ones, and avoids action flicks at all cost — except if they’re starring George Clooney or Harrison Ford.

She values family above all. She loved my grandmother dearly, and was extremely close to her all her life. She now seeks both wisdom and chismis from her aunties, who are at once her second mothers and best friends. My mom never strayed far from her roots in Malabon, which we continue to visit for family lunch in the compound where she grew up. She brings her roots with her wherever she goes, along with our beloved 78-year-old yaya, Nanay Fely, who raised my mom, my brother and me from birth. At the end of the day, my mom is a simple person, who’d rather spend this Mother’s Day with us at home in her pajamas than dressed up at a fancy cocktail.

But the Loren Legarda I know is a senator, too. In the Senate, she studies pending bills and always wants to learn more. From her time in journalism, she took her inquisitiveness and ability to ask the right questions. To feed her curiosity, she surrounds herself with her favorite academics from UP and the United Nations.

Bonding time with Mom in India: Now she can answer e-mails on the road.

Outside the Senate, I grew up seeing her helping people all the time. She was always off building schools and planting trees and finding new ways to make the government work better. Part-time, she was a hostage negotiator, too. I was eight years old when my mom told me that she was leaving for Zamboanga, and I asked her why she had to go. I didn’t then grasp both the dangers and reasons of the mission, but now understand why my mom felt it was her duty. She rescued journalist Arlyn dela Cruz from the Abu Sayyaf in her seventh successful round of hostage negotiations in four years.

As it turns out, the Loren Legarda I know is not just a senator or a journalist, or even a mom, but a superhero and a role model, too.

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Leandro is the youngest son of Senator Loren Legarda. The older son, Lanz, is taking post-graduate studies in London.Leandro is an incoming sophomore at Yale University where he is taking up Political Science and is a gold medalist in debate. Leandro is president of the Freshmen Student Council and secretary of the Yale College Council, the first non-American to hold such posts.He has been a Young Star columnist since 2008.

A passionate environmentalist, Loren is currently chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Climate Change and Cultural Communities.She is the United Nations Asia Pacific champion for disaster reduction.She authored the Climate Change Act and the Solid management Law, among others. She is the visionary behind the first and only textile gallery in the Philippines which is housed in the National Museum."But I am a mother first and foremost," she says.