Vice President Leni Robredo believes the opposition should field a single standard-bearer to increase its chances of winning against President Duterte’s anointed candidate in the May 2022 polls.



Although she has yet to make a final decision on her possible presidential bid, Robredo shared her two cents on the matter when asked during an online leadership forum organized by the Cambridge University Filipino Society.

“We have to accept that the President is, again, a very popular president. And to have many different candidates running against the elections will only ensure another six years of victory of the same kind of governance,” she said.

“And I’m not sure it’s to the best interest of the country. So my sense is that whatever will be good, or whatever will be required to unite the opposition, whether the candidate is myself or some other person,” Robredo added.

1Sambayan, a united opposition group convened by the President’s arch-nemesis, retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, has been vocal about considering the vice president to be its standard-bearer for the 2022 polls.

But Robredo has remained mum about her political plans, and even hinted at running for a gubernatorial post in her home province of Camarines Sur.

READ: https://mb.com.ph/2021/05/12/robredo-remains-open-to-run-for-president-in-2022/

The vice president recognized the 1Sambayan initiative was a “good first step to unite the opposition.”

Robredo, chair of the opposition Liberal Party, explained there are a lot of reasons why she has yet to decide whether or not she would run for president next year. One of which is “feasibility” of running a national campaign.

“I’m a very new politician. I belong to a party which, you know, after the 2016 elections, was almost decimated to the ground,” she noted.

“Meaning to say, there’s been a lot of migration between and among parties and our party, because we belong, it was the party of the previous administration, really suffered really badly after the 2016 elections.”

The opposition leader said the country would need a “hands-on” president with “inclusive” leadership in handling the coronavirus pandemic.

“What kind of president do we need in 2022? It has changed over time, in the sense that the pandemic has only exacerbated our need for a president who is there on the ground, who is hands-on, who is not afraid to roll up his sleeves and be with the people as we battle this pandemic,” Robredo said.

“I feel like things will not go back to normal in the soonest possible time. So it is always in the context of the pandemic that we need this kind of leadership — a leadership that is inclusive, a leadership that is consultative, a leadership that believes in data-driven approach, that listens to experts, that is there who will manage the day-to-day COVID response, of the entire operations,” she added.