Loren Legarda up close and personal

The press releases about Loren Legarda keep flowing like a river, and that’s understandable as she is perceived to be running for president in the 2010 election. We had dinner the other evening at Kai, a classy restaurant in Greenbelt 5 where Loren treats her guests and pays for the bill with a discount. I had a look at her up close and personal, and had no reason to doubt that she could become, if it is her destiny, our next president.

She ordered fish in an exquisite presentation, and tea, and for dessert she succumbed to the temptation of having marshmallow gingerly held over a flame and placed with thick chocolate between crackers. She normally has only tea and a salad for dinner, a breakfast of juice and fruits, and takes a vegetable dish to her Senate office for lunch. She lives simply, she said, although her house in North Forbes is a thing of beauty, with palm trees and thick foliage, and antique paintings and adornments she inherited from her parents. She wears finely designed clothes, often just denims and a white blouse; her face is astonishingly eye-catching, she looks at you as if you were the only person in the world, and when she speaks, she, a former award-winning broadcaster, bowls you over with her articulateness and sincerity.

Our conversation touched on several subjects. First, when will she declare her candidacy for president? She said her announcement would be made in due time. She lost in her bid for the vice-presidency in the last election, and this time she is running for president. “This time I have to win, not for myself, but for the Filipino people, not because I’m popular, not because I have financial support, but because I will run based on a platform and a vision of poverty alleviation, peace, agriculture, health care, quality education, sustainable development, and cultural renaissance.”

“The presidency is a destiny,” she said. “I am preparing both logistically and politically.” But before she formally announces her candidacy, she wants “to make sure that we in the opposition have talked to each other, because I think there are more than five candidates in the opposition running against each other, and this is really disastrous. So hindi ako nagmamadali na mag-announce. For me the best preparation for higher office is good performance, doing a good job.”

She is not so keen on politics, she said, “politics is toxic, but its inherent power and influence is a necessary platform through which I can pursue the humanitarian work that I like to do. I’m interested in peace and development; I am fired up when I talk about rural development.”

She believes that with less corruption in government, the country will be on a better footing. Of the P1.4 trillion budget for 2009, she said, 40 percent will go to debt servicing (“the President can renegotiate this debt”), and 30 percent is lost due to corruption, “that’s why we’re poor.”

Loren talked about mitigating the onslaught of global warming, about the need for government agencies to work together to come up with early warning devices, “to be conscious of the effects of planet change in our day-to-day life.” The challenge is to simplify the technical and scientific information about climate change to make people understand that farmers and fishermen are going to be affected by any climate change, by landslides and continuous rains. “But natural hazards don’t have to be tragedies or disasters if we are disaster-prepared, if our government puts in the right infrastructure.”

She talked about implementing the Clean Air Act, not allowing emission of carbon dioxide and smoke belching, about implementing the Solid Waste Management Law, not throwing garbage into bays, rivers and canals, about developing alternative sources of energy, reforestation, planting of mangroves – all these, to save the planet.

Her concern for the welfare of agricultural workers is carried through in her being chair of the Senate committee on agriculture.

As an environmentalist, she is recognized and given unsolicited awards by United Nations agencies. Early in her senatorial term, instead of just listening and reading reports about the sad state of the environment, she launched her Luntiang Pilipinas, a national greening project that has resulted in the planting of 2 million trees nationwide.

On peace and development in Mindanao, the senator, who had worked for the release of kidnapping victims, said keeping the peace calls for giving people sources of livelihood, a good education, good health, and sufficient infrastructure. She believes that the Abu Sayyaf does not represent the interest of the Bangsamoro.

On the plight of global Filipino workers? “There is nothing wrong with Filipinos going abroad, because we’re a globalized world now. What we can do is to provide them the necessary protection, training, and make them aware of their rights. Until we can afford to make them stay and pay them well, we can’t stop them from leaving the country.” Two laws can help the workers when they return home, she said: the law on small and medium enterprises, and the Barangay Kabuhayan Law.

Expect her campaign to focus on a platform of good governance and performance. She is not the type to go mud-raking or mudslinging. “Ayokong sumikat by trouncing people. I want to stand on my own, on my advocacies, on doing good work.”

Dinner with Loren at Kai was good, the conversation revealed the type of president that she will be.

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