VP Leni to decide before Oct. 8 if she will accept 1Sambayan nomination to be its standard bearer
(Eagle News) — Vice President Leni Robredo who has been nominated by the opposition coalition 1Sambayan as its presidential candidate, will decide this week whether she will run for the country’s top post or not.
Her spokesperson, Barry Gutierrez, said this after President Rodrigo Duterte’s surprise decision to retire from politics and not run anymore for VP. He instead endorsed his former long time-aide, Senator Christopher “Bong” Go who filed his certificate of candidacy as vice-presidential bet of the ruling PDP-Laban party.
Duterte, however, hinted in a separate interview that it could be a Sara Duterte-Bong Go tandem next year.
This was before the Davao City mayor filed her certificate of candidacy seeking reelection in the southern city on Saturday, Oct. 2.
A broadcaster asked President Duterte on Saturday if it was “clear it will be Sara-Go”. Duterte responded: “It’s Sara-Go.”
Surveys have shown Sara Duterte, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., boxing great Manny Pacquiao and celebrity mayor Francisco Domagoso are the frontrunners among potential presidential candidates.
Pacquiao and Domagoso have announced they are running, while the other two have yet to confirm.
Whether Sara Duterte would decide to run for the top national post, even if she had already filed her certificate of candidacy to run again as mayor of Davao City, is still subject of much speculation.
In the meantime, Robredo’s spokesman Atty. Gutierrez said Robredo would announce her decision whether she would accept 1sambayan’s nomination run as the coalition’s standard bearer before the October 8 deadline for the filing of candidacy with the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
1Sambayan convenor, former Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, said the coalition chose Robredo to be their standard bearer after consulting with “their local and foreign chapters as well as our coaltion partners.”
“The 1Sambayan is pleased to announce to the nation that it has reached a decision to endorse Vice President Leni Robredo as its presidential candidate for the May 2022 elections,” he said on Thursday, Sept. 30.
“We based our decision on several criteria: integrity, competence, track record, patriotism, vision for our country, and winnability,” he said.
“We have chosen VL Leni based on these critneria. We therefore ask VP Leni to accept our endorsement to lead the Filipino people in this difficult time in our history,” Carpio said.
-Robredo studying options-
But Robredo said she needed time to study this.
“Ang desisyon sa pagtakbo, hindi pwedeng nakabase sa ambisyon, o sa pag-udyok ng iba,” she said in a statement that was issued shortly after 1Sambayan’s announcement.
“Sa loob ito dapat manggaling, dala ng pagharap sa lahat ng konsiderasyon at malalim na pagsuri sa sitwasyon.”
Robredo then urged her supporters to join her in prayer so “that our decision will be what is best for our country.”
Most of the top candidates have supported Duterte’s controversial drug war, and political analysts say VP Robredo could struggle to compete if she decides to run.
Filipino voters are willing to elect a female president but they want her to be “feisty”, said University of the Philipines political science professor Jean Franco.
“(VP Robredo is) too good, she’s too nice.”
Robredo, 56, narrowly won the nation’s second top job in 2016, defeating Marcos’ son and namesake.
Her victory then dealt a blow to the political aspirations of former Senator Bongbong Marcos.
In an interview last August, Marcos said his decision on what position he would run for would also be based on what would be the decision of the “Davao group” an apparent reference to the Dutertes.
The Philippines’ election season kicked off Friday as celebrities and political scions flocked to the offices of the elections commission to file their nominations.
The process launches a typically noisy and deadly seven months of campaigning for more than 18,000 positions, with the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic downturn caused by lockdowns expected to dampen the party atmosphere.
(with a report from Agence France-Presse)