Vice President Leni G. Robredo yesterday attended her first Cabinet meeting as head of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council.
The Presidential Communications Office released photos that showed Robredo getting a warm welcome from other secretaries as she arrived in Malacañang for the meeting.
Not clad in her usual yellow outfits, Robredo took time to pose for pictures with Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr. and Presidential Communications Office Secretary Martin Andanar. Robredo wore a cream dress under a salmon-colored blazer.
“Vice President Leni Robredo joins her first Cabinet meeting in the Duterte administration in Malacañang.
#PartnerForChange,” the caption read.
Members of the Cabinet were pleased by Robredo’s entry into their ranks. One of the photos showed and Transportation and Communications Secretary Arthur Tugade, who was in a blue jacket, holding the Vice President’s hand as he welcomed her in Malacañang.
During their meeting, Robredo was seated near the head of the table facing Evasco and Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea.
The Cabinet meeting was off-limits to the media.
Robredo’s spokesperson Georgina Hernandez said that the Vice President, who was appointed by President Duterte to head the HUDCC, studied and prepared for the meeting.
“She was given a packet of documents to study and prepare for her first Cabinet meeting,” Hernandez said.
She said that Robredo wanted to “get up to speed with the policy and work priorities of the administration.”
Her appointment as HUDCC head was announced by Duterte last Thursday. The President made the announcement while he was talking to Robredo on the phone in answer to queries by media on whether or not she would be appointed as a member of the Cabinet.
Duterte asked Robredo, “Puwede ka Housing, Ma’am? Can you be the Housing Secretary? Tanggapin mo Ma’am?”
Still talking on the phone, Duterte said, “Sige, Ma’am, so that will be in time for the next Cabinet meeting and even on security matters para you’d be kept abreast of what is happening to our country. Just for you to know.”
Duterte added that Medialdea will hand the appointment as HUDCC chair to her personally.