After a months-long selection process, the 1Sambayan Group has finally named Vice President Leni Robredo as its presidential contender. Robredo, according to the group’s leader, Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio, was chosen for her “integrity, competence, track record, patriotism, vision for our country and winnability,” among other criteria.
“We therefore ask VP Leni to accept our endorsement, to lead the Filipino people in this difficult time in our history,” Carpio said during 1Sambayan’s announcement, which was broadcast live on Facebook on Sept 30.
“And we ask the Filipino people to join the 1Sambayan in supporting VP Leni as the next president who will lead us in healing our nation, reviving our economy, generating employment, eliminating hunger, ending the wanton killing of fellow filipinos, eradicating graft and corruption, defending our sovereignty, strengthening our democratic institutions, upholding our civil liberties and restoring our pride and dignity as a people.”
1Sambayan, which says it is a microcosm of Filipinos from various economic classes, industries and political affiliations, also shared that their three million members and allies are confident that Robredo would accept the nomination, and eventually win in the May 2022 elections. In the end, the coalition’s choices boiled down to Robredo and Manila Mayor Isko Moreno, with the formerly narrowly edging out the latter in 1Sambayan’s internal polls.
Asked if Robredo’s poor showing in the Pulse Asia surveys disheartens them, Carpio said: “Historically, those who led in the surveys at this time of the year, miserably lost in the Presidential election,” indicating that the tides could yet turn in favor of the VP, who trailed behind Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, former Sen. Bongbong Marcos, Moreno, Pacquiao and Sen. Grace Poe, with her 8 percent rating in the most recent Pulse Asia survey.
‘Nakataga na ’yun sa iyo. (It’s carved in destiny)’
So, is she, or isn’t she, running for President?
In an interview with PeopleAsia editor-in-chief Joanne Rae Ramirez last December, Robredo said: “When my husband was still alive and when I was asked to run, I would say, ‘over my dead body.’ When they were asking me to run for VP, ang nasa isip ko, ano namang gagawin ko dyan? (I thought, what will I do there?), I’m so new in politics and there are a lot of people who are better prepared. But, I ran. If you ask me, I don’t want to run for President, but I don’t want to say I will never run because I might eat my words again.”
“On a very personal level, I don’t want to run because I don’t have the money to put up a campaign. In 2016, we had a party (the Liberal Party). We have been decimated already so if you think of it now, even if I wanted to, it seems impossible to mount a presidential campaign because you would need a lot of resources.”
She declared recently before the TV talk show, The Chiefs that like many others, she believes, “The presidency is destiny.” “Nakataga na ’yun sa iyo.” (That is already carved into your destiny)
Till then, wherever destiny eventually takes her, Robredo intends not to reinvent the wheel. But she has reinvented the “spare tire,” and has gotten it going. And it’s part of a hard day’s work for the VP. “We have been put in the consciousness of the people because of the calamities, because we act fast. (But) this is what we’ve been doing for the past four years, even the staff are trained to do that. There is no time to lose once disaster strikes. We know the first few hours are the most important hours. With us, it’s automatic,” she said.
