Leni Robredo’s first major public health push as Naga City mayor centers on a cervical cancer elimination drive — and she wants it to mean more than just a local win.
The city launched the Cervical Cancer Elimination Summit this week, anchoring its efforts on expanded human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination campaigns with the goal of eliminating cervical cancer deaths within the city.
But Robredo, speaking to The Manila Times on Wednesday, framed the initiative within a broader ambition: to make Naga a working model that other local government units across the country can study and replicate.
She pointed to what she sees as a structural gap in Philippine public health policy — the difficulty of scaling programs nationally when no local example exists to demonstrate that they actually work.
“So it’s very difficult to start programs on a national level without proof of concept. That’s our desire here in Naga,” she said.
Asked about public calls for her to seek national office again in the 2028 elections, Robredo kept her answer short: “We don’t talk about that here in Naga.”
