Nor would it be correct to say that Gina is "only" Joe’s better-half, the woman behind the speakership. She is a person in her own right, with brains, charisma, a caring heart. She is the one largely responsible for putting up rehabilitation centers for battered women. She has a radio program called Manay Gina. And she might yet become a senator.
Gina comes from the well-known Vera-Perez clan that produced some of the country’s top movie stars. Her grandfather, Jose R. Vera and a couple of friends, experimented with film production, and its success made them take the business seriously. The company would later take in the young husband of Jose’s daughter, Nene (called Manay Nene), who was its treasurer. Dr. Jose O. Perez, a medical graduate of the University of Santo Tomas (one of whose classmates was the late Evangelina Macaraig Macapagal, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s mother) was "a star builder," recalls his granddaughter Gina. He discovered and built the careers of unknowns – Carmen Rosales, Gloria Romero, Amalia Fuentes, Susan Roces, Nora Aunor, Vilma Santos, Dolphy, and Eddie Gutierrez, and Gina Pareño.
Gina practically grew up with the stars but her father never made her one, except to let her be part of a listening children’s audience in the film, Kwento ni Lola Basyang. She was not paid, but given a good snack. She would have made a nice-looking star, as she was tall and fair-skinned. She took up business administration, major in finance, at Assumption Convent. She married early and had two kids, but the marriage fell apart. In the 80’s, a young politician from Pangasinan who also had had a failed marriage, Joe de Venecia, swept her off her feet. They got married 17 years ago.
"I never thought I’d marry a politician," she recalls. Joe had been a member of the Batasan, then became a businessman when martial law was declared. He was a congressman from 1987 to 1992; from 1992 to 1995, he was Speaker of the House. In 1998, he ran for President but lost. In 2001, he ran for Congress again, and was again elected Speaker.
Gina says at first she did not like being a politician’s wife. For one thing, she lost her privacy, she said. Then she realized, "It’s pretty hard not to learn to like being married to a politician like Joe. He is such a dedicated public servant, husband and father. I like to help him. He is dedicated to the country, and to the President. He gives people jobs, he has good bills to help alleviate poverty. And he and President Macapagal-Arroyo have the same vision. Joe helped her with a lot of her economic policies."
Now Gina is a consummate dedicated politician herself, as she attends to the needs of Joe’s constituents, and gives everyone an ear when they come asking for help. "You know why we click? " she asks. "Because we’re both hard-working." They stay up late together – working on separate concerns.
As head of the Congressional Spouses Foundation, Gina has been particularly responsible for the creation of The Haven, or Center for Abused Women, in Alabang. The clients are victims of rape, incest, and physical abuse, and are given shelter at the Center for one year. The lot is owned by the Department of Social Welfare and Development which also operates the center, but the Foundation raised the money for the construction of nine buildings which make up the dormitories, administration office, and center for livelihood skills training. Since the inauguration of The Haven in 2000, some 6,000 women above the age of 16, have had rehabilitation treatment and training for some skills, like sewing of dresses and making of bags, and computer usage. "We only need to document their cases so we’ll find out if they have been helped by their training," says Gina.
The success of the Alabang Haven led the Congressional Spouses’ Foundation to put up 15 regional centers in different parts of the country plus a Haven for Streetchildren in Alabang.
Some people believe Gina will make a good public servant herself. Her program, Manay Gina, reaches out to poor and disadvantaged women.
Would she be interested in running in the 2004 senatorial elections? Gina smiles, and says, frankly, yes. But Joe thinks Gina might not be able to attend to him if she becomes a senator. (Typical macho, Joe.) Gina recalls that during the impeachment crisis in Congress, she took special care of him. "He was listening to those in favor of impeaching the Chief Justice, and those against. He was like a father listening to what his children saying." Joe could not sleep. On the day the vote would be transmitted to Congress, Gina gave Joe a "relaxant." That day she had lunch with sister Helen, the wife of preacher Mike Velarde, then proceeded to Congress. "I’m always there with him," she says. In her thinking, though, the arguments given by those in favor of impeachment were not enough to have the Chief Justice removed.
If she is in the Senate, she says, she would be sponsoring bills for the benefit of women and children. She is for the death penalty, as a deterrent for criminals, and she is in favor of families having only two children, "For how would a person earning P300 a day support a family of six?"