Senate Deputy Majority Leader Risa Hontiveros assured on Wednesday, February 18 that the united opposition might announce its standard bearer for the 2028 presidential elections by the end of 2026 or in the first quarter of 2027.

Hontiveros disclosed this a few hours after Vice President Sara Duterte announced her presidential bid.

“All I can say is that this year, 2026, reform-minded and opposition forces are focused on creating a stronger coalition so we can choose our candidates whether by the end of the year or first quarter of next year,” Hontiveros told reporters in an interview.

“Well, as our favorite philosophers say, we all have free will. So we will use that,” she said. 

Asked if the vice president’s announcement will affect the timeline set by the opposition, the senator said: “We are still in the process of setting our own timeline. So that free will that I mentioned earlier, we will be using that too.”

“That is the task we have set for ourselves,” she said.

She also pointed out that the opposition is regularly communicating even before the vice president made her announcement.

“That strategy is still part of a long and arduous process that we need to do before we can 100 percent unite on who would be our common candidates,” she said.