LEADING LADIES

Tatler speaks to four beautiful, dynamic ladies who are more than just Senators' wives. Besides being a wife and a mother, they have their own careers and advocacies. Find out in this Tatler exclusive how they are forging their paths as well as how they are playing their part for the country

- Maritess Garcia

The most obvious thing that Audrey Tan Zubiri, Tootsy Echauz-Angara, Em Aglipay Villar and Kathryna Yu Pimentel have in common is that they’re married to politicians—to Senate President Juan Miguel “Migs” Zubiri, Senator Sonny Angara, Senator Mark Villar and Senator Koko Pimentel respectively. But the women are far more than help-meets on their husbands’ political journey: the quartet are Senate Spouses Foundation Inc (SSFI) members. This non-profit organisation focuses on improving the lives of those less fortunate.

For 37 years, SSFI has been delivering socio-civic programmes such as home-building for the elderly, medical and dental missions, disaster relief operations and school outreach activities to vulnerable members of society. “It was originally known as the Senate Ladies Foundation, but now we have a lot of [female] senators, so we have to keep up with the times: it [became] the Senate Spouses Foundation Inc.,” says Zubiri, president of SSFI, formed in 1987. Today, Zubiri, Villar, EchauzAngara and Pimentel, alongside 15 others, keep the foundation’s flame alive, continuing legacy projects begun by previous members and spearheading new ones, all for the love of the country.