100 youth groups join call for Robredo to run in 2022

FILE PHOTO: Vice President Leni Robredo.

A group of over 100 youth-led organizations on Friday said Vice President Leni Robredo is “the most viable choice” for the country to “recover from the shortcomings of the government” and the effects of the global pandemic.

The “F1rst Ko Si Leni” coalition, which collectively calls for Robredo to run for president in 2022, said the united stand of the youth was necessary to push for a better leader and government in the next polls.

The group said that Robredo was its “first choice” to take on this key role.

“Our nation’s survival heavily depends on the results of the 2022 elections and we believe that we just cannot afford another six years with this kind of governance comprised of the worst economic downfall since the Marcos dictatorship, extrajudicial killings, the unrelenting death toll due to diseases and the worsening poverty and hunger,” the group said in a statement.

The group, launched on Aug. 27, was formed a month after Robredo expressed that young people could be the main drivers of the coming elections, with 40 million Filipinos from ages 18 to 39 eligible to vote in the 2022 polls.

Responding as “political game changers,” the coalition said its goal was to support Robredo’s possible presidential bid, onboarding youth groups that work with various sectors from farmers and fisherfolk, transport groups, student bodies, LGBTQ+ community and health-care workers.

Robredo’s spokesperson, lawyer Barry Gutierrez, said on Thursday that the opposition leader had yet to make a definite decision or announcement about her bid for the presidency.

But Gutierrez noted that in the past week alone, more than 200 groups, including other youth organizations, had come out to call for the Vice President to run.

He said that Robredo “will listen to them” and consider their support in making her decision.