President Marcos said he would endorse the “best possible candidate” in the 2028 elections, setting the stage for the administration to field a candidate who could challenge Vice President Sara Duterte.

Speaking at the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) Presidential Luncheon in Manila, Marcos said he would certainly endorse a candidate but stressed that it was too early to determine who that would be.

“I will certainly endorse a candidate in the 2028 elections,” he said Friday, Aug. 14.

“Who that is, I cannot tell you because even I don't know. It's a little early for that. And we don't know,” he added.

However, Marcos said there was a person interested in running for the presidency but refused to reveal their identity.

“So far, we have only one person who has put their hand in the ring. So, that's a very, very early one in the process,” he said.

Marcos likewise said his party, the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP), would forge alliances with other political parties, with the eventual arrangement determining whether they would field joint candidates or their own slate.

“We will certainly provide the best candidate for the betterment of the lives of every Filipino,” he said.

“We will choose the best possible candidate,” he added, saying the administration would seek to continue what it had started while introducing new initiatives for the country's development.

President Marcos said he had yet to discuss the presidential race with anyone, as names being floated for 2028 remain speculative.

“Sa ngayon, puro haka-haka lang. Baka tatakbo si ganito, tatakbo si ganyan (For now, it is all speculation. This one might run, that one might run),” he said.

“Put it this way, I haven't sat down with anyone and said, ‘Do you want to run for president or not?’ No, we've not come anywhere near that,” he added.

Marcos said deciding on a candidate now would be premature because many political events could still happen before the 2028 elections.

The President's remarks came as early surveys have begun measuring hypothetical 2028 matchups, including the latest OCTA Research Tugon ng Masa survey that showed the Leni Robredo-Raffy Tulfo tandem at 45 percent, against 42 percent for the Sara Duterte-Imee Marcos tandem.

The Chief Executive said he does not allow survey results to influence his decisions or the direction of his administration, despite acknowledging that politicians naturally pay attention to their numbers.

“I don't change my decision because of the survey. I don't change direction because of the survey,” he said.

“I adopt a policy because I believe that it's the best policy,” he added, noting that survey results do not determine the “rightness or wrongness” of what his government is trying to do.

According to Marcos, early 2028 surveys may be interesting, but he questioned their usefulness because the election remains far away and political conditions could still change significantly.