Vice President Leni Robredo on Tuesday, August 13, said she is keeping her options open regarding the 2022 presidential race.
In a Bloomberg article written by Andreo Calozo, Robredo said she was ready for the presidency but would decide later on whether to stand as the opposition Liberal Party’s main candidate in elections three years from now, when Filipinos will vote on Duterte’s successor.
“If you ask me now, I have no plans, but I am leaving everything open,” she said.
“I wouldn’t have ran for the vice presidency if I didn’t feel I was ready for the presidency,” Robredo added.
A 54-year old lawyer with an economics degree, Robredo first entered politics as a congresswoman in 2013 — a year after her husband, Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo, died in a plane crash.
She won the vice presidency with her anti-poverty platform, promising to help those in the fringes of society. She defeated former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. by more than 200,000 votes.
In a June interview, Robredo said her top priority is addressing the country’s present problems, not the 2022 presidential elections.
However, she did not rule out the possibility of running for president, maintaining that the presidency is a matter of destiny.
“Everything is possible. But it’s not something that is planned, I think it’s destiny,” Robredo said.
“The presidential election is still very far. In a year, many things could happen, much more in three years,” she added.
At present, Robredo is facing an electoral protest filed by Marcos as well as a sedition complaint filed by the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.
