Sen. Robin Padilla said he has no plans to run for vice president, putting to rest speculation that he would seek the country’s second-highest elective post.
“[I] have no plans to be a vice presidential candidate,” Padilla said in a Facebook post.
The senator added in Filipino that he would defer to former president Rodrigo Duterte who has been detained at the International Criminal Court (ICC) since March last year over a case of crimes against humanity.
Padilla’s statement came after political commentator Ronald Llamas, a former political affairs adviser to the late president Benigno Aquino III, criticized him online.
Following Padilla’s earlier remarks on Friday, Llamas said: “When you want to be Vice President, not because you want to serve, but because you are a servant to a prisoner in the ICC.”
In a separate Facebook post in Filipino, Llamas added that Padilla “only confirmed accusations that he doesn’t have a brain of his own.”
Padilla later clarified that his remarks about following Duterte were rooted in party discipline, noting that the former president serves as chairman of their political party, PDP-Laban.
“Does your smart brain find it hard to understand that a political party has rules and regulations, and only the chairman decides who — and what — a party member should run for?” Padilla said.
Padilla’s ally, Vice President Sara Duterte, has earlier declared her intention to run for president in the 2028 national elections, becoming the first aspirant to publicly announce a bid.
Before the speculation about his possible vice presidential run surfaced, Padilla said he was working to build support for Sen. Imee Marcos as a potential running mate of Sara Duterte.
