The answers come quick and almost stereotyped whenever one asks, “Angela Librado-Trinidad, who?”
Passionate lawyer. Feisty women’s advocate. Devoted public servant. Member of the GRP peace panel.
And oh, yes. Lovely daughter of the late labor leader Nonoy Librado.
It goes around those descriptions. But not much has been said about the other side of Angging. To be exact, the mother side of Angging.
Atty. Angela “Angging” Librado-Trinidad’s typical day begins with the alarm on her mobile phone set at 5:30 in the morning. But don’t let her fool you, that alarm gets off three times and set back to snooze before even the smartest of phones could finally kick her out of bed. Once she does though, she’s an energizer bunny brought to life.
With a steaming cup of coffee in tow, she puts on her armor and begins the day in the kitchen. She cooks breakfast for the kids with boiled eggs as a regular fare on the menu. She takes the kids—Karina, 12; Lorenzo, 8; Kristina, 6; and Conrad, 4—off to school then goes back home for a half-an-hour nap.
Then she jumps off to attend to her clients, goes to court for hearings at 8:30 and where there are none on the schedule, hits the desktop and does her readings.
At quarter past 10 am, she takes lunch and heads off to fetch the kids at 11:30. At 1 pm, she goes to either the Law Office or the Barangay Hall with toddler Conrad in tow.Then she gets home with the kids, pretends to sleep at 8:30, gets up before midnight at 11 to finish off the day’s work, coffee on the side which usually ends up left cold.
Then another day awaits.
Angging has evolved from a father’s daughter, to a student leader, to a public servant in all of 44 years in this planet– 19 years of those as a lawyer, and the unheralded 13 years as wife to Dr. Coco Trinidad and mother of 4.
Motherhood, according to her, has made her stop and smell the flowers.
We stopped briefly to drop a few questions to Angging and picked her mind on motherhood.
Q: How do you balance your time as a working mother?
ALT (Angela Librado-Trinidad): When asked, I say without hesitation, am a mother to 4 minors, part time lawyer and women’s advocate. I don’t do balance, I am a parent first , always.
Q: What do you learn from your kids?
ALT: They have been teaching me to relax, live and laugh hard but I have been very stubborn ‘til this very day.
Q: What do you teach your kids to prepare them in life?
ALT: I always remind them to be rights respecting individuals and to assert them at all times.
I teach them about sex and their right against any form of abuse. I remember when my eldest was in kinder, when I fetched her, she shouted at the top of her voice “ma, nobody touched my vagina!”
I also teach them to value privacy and security. So one time a lawyer friend asked one of my kids where her school is, my kid looked at me and asked, can I tell? My lawyer friend interrupted and said, you can tell me I’m your mom’s friend. And my kid says, “oh, if you are my mom’s friend, when is my birthday?
Q: What did motherhood change in you as a person?
ALT: It gave flesh to my advocacies.
Q: Did motherhood ‘soften’ a fierce Angging?
ALT: Motherhood taught me that it’s ok to stop and smell the flowers.
Today, Angging can talk whole day about her kids without stopping. Her memories are filled with happy thoughts and new life learnings brought only by being a mother. It’s a lesson one never learns in school, but only in life.
And where faced with the energy-sapping complexities of today’s society—politics, conflicts and all—Angging goes back to her kids now, stops for a moment, and springs back to life.
She’s an energizer mom again, ready to take on the world. First, to beat the three alarms, and last, to sip her coffee before it gets nippy.
