Trillanes ‘100% sure’ to run as VP

WHILE this is not the first time he made the declaration, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV on Thursday said that he no longer has any doubts about running for vice president in the 2016 elections.

“I am 100 percent sure that I will run as vice president this 2016,” Trillanes told reporters at a media forum in the Senate.

Trillanes, now on his second term as senator, said that he will run as vice president because he “wants to implement change now.”

READ: Trillanes: I will run for vice president in 2016

“I believe I can accomplish many things. I don’t have a plan to grow old in politics. If we want change, we should aspire for change now. We have seen the problems of our country and we have seen that these are not being addressed,” the senator said.

As early as 2014, Trillanes has announced that he would run for higher office in 2016.

Man to beat

Asked who among the potential candidates he considers as the greatest threat to the position, he said it was Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero.

“I believe that the frontrunner in the 2016 vice presidential race is Senator Chiz Escudero. And that Senator Grace Poe will run for president,” Trillanes said

He said that despite being beaten by Escudero on opinion polls, he would not back down from his bid in eyeing the vice presidential post.

READ: Trillanes: I will run for a higher position in 2016

“He has a huge lead but we will continue to fight. In the end, it’s up to the people,” he said.

The senator has shown poor results on the most recent SWS survey for vice presidential candidates, gaining only 1.1 percent.

Escudero earlier said that he would not run as vice president if Senator Grace Poe would not vie for the presidency.

Even without Party’s endorsement

Trillanes said that he would run as vice president even if he would not be endorsed officially by the Nacionalista Party (NP).

Claiming that he has expressed his decision to run for vice president to the party since 2013, he said that if NP would back another vice presidential candidate, he would not quit from the party.

Other candidates that are reportedly being fielded by NP for top posts include Senator Alan Peter Cayetano and Ferdinand “Bong-bong” Marcos Jr.

Sensing that the vice presidential campaign will be difficult without party machinery, he said that he will be backed by his group Magdalo Party-list in directly approaching the electorate to convince them that he is “the better alternative.”

The senator said the platforms for his campaign will focus on “peace and order, anti-corruption and poverty alleviation.

READ: Escudero to run for vice president, if …

Unperturbed

Meanwhile, Trillanes said that he is no longer perturbed even if other personalities are on top of him in surveys, believing that come October, the political landscape will shift.

“Ever since I entered politics in 2007, I was never afraid of losing, he said.

He recalled that when he launched his bid for a Senate seat in jail, he was lagging behind on opinion polls but he remained unfazed.

“Talking about the Pulse Asia and SWS (Social Weather Stations) surveys, I was just in 56th place then (among all candidates for the Senate) but I was not disheartened to stop vying for the position. Our group believed that the decision to field a candidate was not particularly hinged on a candidate’s ‘winnability’ but if he believes that it is the right thing to do,” the senator said.