Robredo shuns thoughts about 2022 polls

Philippine Vice President Leni Robredo salutes to the statue of National Hero Jose Rizal during a wreath laying ceremony at the 120th Independence Day celebration at Rizal Park in Manila on June 12, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / NOEL CELIS

Vice President Leni Robredo has been passing up on thoughts about the 2022 elections, saying it would only get in the way of her service to the public.

Robredo was answering questions during an open forum at a lunch meeting of the Rotary Club Makati West on Thursday, where the possibility of her leading the opposition in the next presidential elections was tackled.

“I think that if I entertain such an ambition now, it will affect the way I serve the people, because everything will be political already.  You know, if I’m looking at the presidency already in 2022, I won’t go to these places, because I will be wasting so much time and resources,” the Vice President said.

“I would go to the poor part of Metro Manila, where the population density is really high.  But it’s not… it will be politically feasible for somebody who is aiming for the presidency to be going to these faraway places. So I think political ambition will mar the way I serve the people,” she added.

Robredo is the chairperson of the Liberal Party (LP) being the highest elected official from the group. LP, which is deemed a political opposition in the Duterte administration, is fielding eight senatorial candidates for the 2019 elections.

Several netizens supportive of LP and Robredo want her to be the next presidential candidate of the party.  However, Robredo noted that the presidency is more of a pre-destined position.

“I think the presidency is destiny.  If you look back in our history, there have been so many people who, you know, who wanted to be president, who devoted so much of their time, effort, and resources to, you know, to getting that post,” she explained.

“Pero wala, eh.  Parang… I think it’s destiny. And I think it’s something you cannot plan,” she added.

In 2010, Robredo’s running mate, former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, was poised to run as president.  However, petitions calling for then-Senator Benigno S. Aquino III to pursue the highest elective post forced Roxas to take a backseat and run as Aquino’s vice president instead.

Aquino eventually won the presidency, but Roxas lost to former Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay, who was declared vice president.

Then in 2016, another unwilling candidate in then-Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte was voted by 16 million people, even if numerous surveys showed Binay and Senator Grace Poe were leading the way.

Robredo also acknowledged the she was in fact “a politician by accident,” owing her candidacy to her husband, the late ex-Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo.

“Looking back also, you know naman that I became a politician by accident. If it were not for the sudden death of my husband, I would not have run for Congress,”  she said.

“And when I ran for Congress, the agreement was I would only be there for a term because I was filling in a gap. And then I was pushed for the vice presidency, with no money, almost nobody knew me in the start—but I won […] It was never in my ambition, not just to become Vice President,” she added.  /kga