Senate Minority leader Franklin Drilon hopes that Vice President Leni Robredo will give the presidential race a shot saying she has the power to unite all the non-Duterte candidates in the 2022 polls.
“We should only have one candidate. We cross our fingers that VP Robredo will decide to run for president and we believe she is the strongest and, hopefully, she can unite all the non-Duterte candidates,” Drilon said in an interview on ABS-CBN News.
Robredo is now the chairman of the Liberal Party.
The party has yet to decide on its political plans but Drilon is confident that they will all back Robredo’s presidential bid.
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“Let me make it very clear. All the Liberal Party members would rally behind VP Robredo should she run for the presidency which is a personal decision. If she does not run for the presidency, then the LP will have to meet and see where we will go from there,” the senator said.
“We have not discussed anything. What we have decided on, we are in full support of VP Leni,” Drilon added.
Robredo previously appealed to voters for the 2022 national elections. She said that people should register and vote and do not leave 2022 elections to chance.
In an online show, Robredo lamented that some voters, particularly students, are eligible to vote but did not register for the polls.
“We need to register because it turned out later on that many did not register. Many students are of voting age but did not register. So to me, for me, it can’t be like anything, like our campaign is just in the air. Apparently we don’t leave it to chance,”she said.
Robredo said despite efforts of some groups to encourage more people to register and vote, the calls have fallen to deaf ears.
“There are actually advocacy groups that really urge people to register and there are some, it seems like the others have become numb. Numb in the sense that, Nothing will happen, I’m just one vote,” she said.
Robredo believes that there should only be one opposition candidate to run in the 2022 national elections to defeat the administration candidate in the presidential race.
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Although Robredo remains unclear on her plans if she would seek the presidency in next year’s elections.
Robredo made the statement when she joined a public forum at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.
The Vice President was asked: While we will not press further as to whether you’ve made your decision or not, we wanted to know what factors and conditions you are considering in making a decision to go for it in 2022.
Robredo responded that she is still studying the feasibility of running for president.
“So, number one is really feasibility. I believe that there should be only one opposition candidate in the 2022 elections…. To have many different candidates running in the elections will only ensure..victory of the same kind of governance that the last five years have given us. And I’m not sure it’s in the best interests of the country,” she said. (TDT)
