Less than 12 months to the 2022 presidential election and the first major Opposition presidentiable bid — one coming from former “senator” and convicted mutineer Antonio Trillanes — sets back rather than progresses efforts to unify the Philippine Opposition against the camp of popular incumbent President Rodrigo Duterte. In an announcement Trillanes issued over Twitter yesterday, he called on the 1Sambayan coalition (headed by Retired Supereme Court Justice Antonio Carpio) to bump presumptive Opposition leader “vice president” Leni Robredo off the top position as presidential bet.
In view of VP Leni’s preparations to run for Governor of Camarines Sur in 2022, I, together with the Magdalo group, have decided to convey to the 1SAMBAYAN Coalition to change my status from being an alternate candidate (to VP Leni) to being a principal candidate for President…
Evidently, Trillanes couldn’t be bothered to engage in enough preemptive schmoozing with the relevant stakeholders to cover his bases before he went off shooting his big mouth. Just as soon as news of Trillanes’s attempted coup came out, Robredo’s office reportedly issued a statement debunking every one of the assumptions upon which Trillanes built his ill-thought-out move.
“She has not made a decision regarding the 2022 elections, and there is absolutely no truth to the claim that she is making “preparations” to run for Governor of Camarines Sur,” lawyer Barry Gutierrez, Robredo’s spokesperson, said in a statement.
Gutierrez also followed up with a later statement that “Robredo remains open to a possible presidential bid in the 2022 elections”.
| SUPPORT INDEPENDENT SOCIAL COMMENTARY! Subscribe to our Substack community GRP Insider to receive by email our in-depth free weekly newsletter. Opt into a paid subscription and you'll get premium insider briefs and insights from us. Subscribe to our Substack newsletter, GRP Insider! Learn more |
And, for its part, 1Sambayan issued its own safe response to Trillanes. It sounded more like a damage control attempt and offered no further clarity around what Filipinos can expect of an Opposition that up until now is thick on shrillness but thin on conviction.
Former Sen. Antonio #Trillanes has always been included in our list of nominees, as is VP #LeniRobredo. On June 12, the process of selection will be announced, and we will invite our members, allied groups & patriotic Filipinos to join and participate in the process. #1SAMBAYAN
It is interesting to note that the battle for endorsement as the Philippine Opposition’s top presidentiables is between two Yellowtards (the leading bloc within it loyal to the Aquino-Cojuangco clan). It’s hard to wrap one’s head around the idea that the top opposition coalition of a country of more than 100 million people can cough up only mediocre and downright-dishonest politicians like Robredo and Trillanes. Is this all the Philippines’ wokedom really have to go up against the popular incumbent camp of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte that they’ve been demonising for years?
Robredo’s fandom, for all their lame #LetLeniLead hashtagging seem to be infinitely patient to the point of coming across as just plain stupid. Indeed, even with the benefit of hard data showing that Robredo is a clear set-up-for-failure owing to her dismal popularity scores, they seem to foolishly stand by an absolute dud. Credit is actually due Trillanes, to be fair. He had the cojones to issue a categorical statement of interest in the presidency. Robredo, on the other hand, despite now being under the spotlight continues to play the tired old coy game. What is Robredo waiting for? Does she need a show of hands in a massive Yellowtard rally before she can make up her little mind? Goes to show that Robredo, for all her talk, lacks any sort of walk. She’s been playing that dishonest coy act even way back. Recall her sourgrapy response back in January to a December survey that showed her dismal ranking while administration bet Inday Sara Duterte lorded it at the top of the polls where Gutierrez pointed out that the elections are still “a long way away.”
Well, it’s now the middle of May and the 2022 elections are fast approaching. Tick tock tick tock… the Opposition are still in disarray and continue to unravel. Filipinos are entertained.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
Presidentiable? Is that pinoy speak for presidential??
Pinoyspeak for anyone that can be considered by one partisan camp or the other as a winnable presidential candidate.
I thought the term pertains to the qualification. Silly me.
Trillianes, the noise maker. Now a Bull Dog with no owner so he isn’t currently barking. I was curious why he was dead silent about the WPS issue all this time when he was a party to it as a back door negotiator for Aquino. Now that Aquino’s not in power and LP has no luster, has that meant his silence because there was no benefit for him to make noise?
Now he announces his desire to be president and wishes for 1Sambayanan’s endorsement, but also claims he doesn’t wish to “pre-empt” Robredo’s decision… You can already see the man is only in it for himself and only out to make himself look as “best he can” publicly.
But perhaps he found Robredo’s group to be hopeless and she did say she was vying for local level politics in an interview she did this year, if I recall correctly. And now her office seems to suggest she hasn’t “fully decided” yet. I guess something is only as desirable if someone else wants it for themselves in this case (get the Opposition’s nomination to be their candidate for president).
Trillianes… is Trillianes. I see no way he will be a viable option at this time, unless Duterte bungles a lot of major issues leading up to the election and chooses to give his blessing to someone like Bong Go or a lame duck. If that happens, then there might be a race.
Presently, I also see no potential Candidates from the Admin Side at the moment. Duterte might have an “independent” running against his choice if he picks say Sara as the nominee so Pacquiao might run as a third party. The guy is hell bent on becoming president. Money might be running out as he and his posse don’t know how to value it. He may have some good intentions in running, but you know a lot of those around him were originally after his money. And if he becomes president, getting a cut from the country’s coffers would be a bigger gold mine for them.
Will it be Bongbong? At present, I do feel Bongbong is the likely one presently to get Duterte’s blessing over Sara. But Sara might be a VP Candidate, or Duterte himself maybe. But does he want to be in national politics at his age and his aging health conditions. Might be wiser for him to enjoy it with his family.
If Pacquiao splinters off to be a third party candidate, I can imagine Villar coming into the picture (Cynthia or Manny) as a running mate as I don’t think they can run for the senate anymore. Their son will take that slot as a candidate most likely. They are grooming him anyway with all those photo ops he likes to take with infra, even if it can be done without his presence. He reaps the media mileage by being in the photo op of progress updates. Basically personal gain even in the midst of a pandemic.
Just my thoughts at present.
Well and fine….but does he have any kind of platform? LONG-TERM VISION???
If not, then I am passing and laying my lot for Sara and/or BBM.
Trillanes must present to us voters, his political platforms. How he will solve the country’s problems, that are too many. We have the New People’s Army problem. We have too many corruption, of every kind… We have too many political opportunists.
Trillanes, plus Leni Robredo, are political disasters for the country, waiting to happen…
In an honest elections sans Dilawan-riddled Comelec, BONGBONG MARCOS WILL BECOME THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES. Trillanes or ROBredo can’t hold a candle against him.