THE opposition Liberal Party is still trying to convince former Vice President Leni Robredo to run for senator next year instead of seeking the mayoralty seat in her hometown, Naga City.
“It’s a continuing effort but we always respect her decision. If she will run for a local position, we are asking her to be active in the national campaign,” Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, LP president, told a news forum on Wednesday.
Lagman earlier said Robredo will run for mayor of Naga City to continue the programs of her late husband.
Robredo, who finished a far second to President Marcos Jr. in the 2022 presidential race, is the widow of Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo, a long-time mayor of Naga City, who was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service in 2000.
While the LP will field senatorial candidates, Lagman said the opposition party cannot fill up the 12 seats to complete a slate because of limited budget.
The LP president also dismissed the claim of former senator Antonio Trillanes IV that Robredo’s “pink forces” are considering forming an alliance with President Marcos Jr. if only to ensure the defeat of members of the Duterte family who will seek Senate seats in the midterm polls.
Vice President Sara Duterte last month announced that her father, former president Duterte, and her two brothers, Rep. Paolo Duterte and Mayor Sebastian Duterte of Davao City, will seek senatorial seats in next year’s midterm elections but their father later said it is not true.
“We are not seriously considering any alliance with the Duterte forces or the Marcos forces,” said Lagman.
The Liberal Party is part of a coalition with Trillanes’ Magdalo party-list group and the Katipunan ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino.
The militant Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives said it will field its own 12-man senatorial slate after Rep. France Castro (PL, ACT) announced last week that she was running for senator.
Castro said the Makabayan Coalition will field candidates who will represent various sectors like the marginalized, farmers, fisherfolk, indigenous people, urban poor, women, and professionals.
On Wednesday, Speaker Martin Romualdez said all major political parties will be part of President Marcos Jr.’s Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas after forging an alliance with his Partido Federal ng Pilipinas. He made the statement after Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers said his Nacionalista Party is forging an alliance with the PFP by the end of the month.
