WITH Vice President Leni Robredo apparently preparing to run for governor of Camarines Sur, former senator Antonio Trillanes IV declared Wednesday, May 12, his intention to run for president in the 2022 elections.
In a Facebook post, Trillanes said that he and the Magdalo Group have decided to convey to the 1Sambayan Coalition to change his status from being an “alternate candidate” to being the group’s “principal candidate” for president in next year’s elections.
This, he said, is “in view of Vice President Leni Robredo’s preparations to run for governor of Camarines Sur in 2022.”
Robredo has been considered the coalition’s principal candidate for president in next year’s elections. Her camp has not issued yet a statement on Trillanes’ announcement as of this posting Wednesday, May 12.
“This move is necessary for my name to be included in 1Sambayan’s selection process,” said Trillanes.
He clarified that he does not intend to divide the opposition, stressing “there will only be one unified slate to be nominated by 1Sambayan, and both VP Leni and myself have committed to support and campaign for its nominees.”
He also said that in the event that Robredo decides to run for the land’s highest post before the coalition picks its nominees in July, “I would wholeheartedly step aside and withdraw my own candidacy in her favor.”
“But until then, we would work on the assumption that VP Leni would run for governor of CamSur and, thus, we could now start our own preparations focusing on the development of policy prescriptions to solve the different problems of our country, particularly on pandemic response; economic recovery and poverty alleviation; peace and order/security sector reforms; anti-corruption/governance reforms; universal healthcare; foreign policy (including WPS), etc.,” Trillanes said.
He also appealed for the public’s support to help 1Sambayan Coalition win the elections and help “rebuild our country and let our people finally enjoy the blessings of democracy.”
Rumors about Robredo running for governor of Camarines Sur surfaced recently after the Philippine Statistics Authority announced last May 5 that the Vice President registered for the Philippine Identification System at its office in Magarao, Camarines Sur.
Robredo said in earlier interviews that she prefers running for local office, although she is open to running for president in next year’s polls. (Laureen Mondoñedo-Ynot/SunStar Philippines)