Vice President Leni Robredo has not given up on a possible presidential run for the 2022 elections despite meeting with her potential rivals for the position, Liberal Party vice chair Franklin Drilon said Tuesday.
Drilon, who also heads the Senate minority bloc, said Robredo is still looking at a potential presidential bid, but their first objective was to ensure that a candidate from the opposition wins in the upcoming elections.
"Step one is to unite everybody. If she becomes the most viable candidate, she will ask the others to come around and support her because the objective is to have a united front. So, the assessment that she has given up is totally wrong and baseless," he told reporters in a virtual interview.
Senators Panfilo Lacson and Richard Gordon, who both expressed interest in running for president in 2022, said they recently met with Robredo.
Robredo's talks with Lacson, however, did not sit well with opposition figure and former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and even threatened that the Magdalo group would drop support for the vice president should she give way for Lacson.
Drilon said the goal of these meetings was to come up with the strongest candidate against the administration. He disagreed with Trillanes that Robredo should not talk to other prospective candidates.
"We should have a big tent wherein we can attract all sectors who believe that the next administration should not be identified with the present administration. Therefore, a broader coalition is necessary," he said.
"Maybe in another time or ideal situation, we should not talk to certain people. But I do not agree that at this time that is a good strategy," he added.
Robredo is among the nominees of the 1Sambayan opposition coalition for a standard bearer in the 2022 elections.
While she agrees that the opposition must field a single presidential candidate, Robredo can't commit herself to be the standard bearer, except to say that she remained "open" to running for president.
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