An icon of good governance : Jesse Robredo

Picture credit : Vincent R. Pozon



I met the late Honorable Jesse Robredo briefly up close & personal in Naga City during the Raul Roco & Inday Santiago presidential & vice presidential campaign a decade & half ago. Robredo was the incumbent & outgoing mayor of the city of Naga having served a complete 9 years (3 terms) as mayor. Because he was not a candidate, I saw him as giving the limelight to contenders Raul Roco for president of the Philippines & to the younger brother of Raul Roco who was running for mayor of Naga City. Other politicians would run for a higher post but Jesse Robredo went to the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University like he was crystallizing into concepts the praxis & lessons learned for almost a decade as a public servant. When praxis is translated to concepts & paradigms, they become technology transfer ready. And academia is always the best place to pause & reflect & organize thoughts. 


Then that Robredo merited the 2000 Ramon Magsaysay award, Asia’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize, is now legendary. Robredo was not only a good manager & technocrat but more importantly he was able to inspire the people of disaster & flood prone Naga City to dream of another reality. Maybe it was true that the reason he could not run for a post higher than mayor was because he did not have the financial wherewithal. Still, he was an excellent mayor judging from the awards that recognized his kind of good governance. Robredo is one of few people gifted with a charism & this he was able to muster for the development of his beloved Naga City. This local success brought him to national attention & to head the Department of Interior & Local Government, a post coveted by presidential timbers because of the post’s access to the entire political machinery of the Philippines. Robredo became mayor of Naga City at age 29 in 1988. 


How was a politician like Robredo able to win as mayor again for yet another 9 years from 1995 – even if he did not have the financial resources to be elected? The simple answer is because an inspired voting citizenry did not have to be bought. Robredo was able to put to good use the resources of government at his disposal for the development of his city & his voters liked this enough to vote for him as their mayor for close to two decades. From a low income city, Robredo was able to bring Naga City to first class status, not only increasing income for all but also making the abstract word empowerment become real & felt by the poor through civil society. And that is why as a member of civil society, we emulate his strategy. 


Defining for us the concept of local representation, is one project promoted by Jesse Robredo which is so close to our hearts in our own Alternative Law Groups Network (ALG). And as shared by a colleague, Atty Claire Pauig Luczon, “Colleagues in ALG were so proud to work with you in ensuring that the poor & the marginalized were represented & heard in local government. We were so impressed with your work that the ALG drafted the proposed Local Representation Law patterned after the experience of Naga City, under your leadership.” In closing, let me quote Anna Leah who said “We must look for Robredo….in the hearts of the next candidates & future leaders. We should look for him, too, for the struggle for good governance, in our hearts.”