Robredo says she's ready to be President in 2022

Vice President Leni Robredo said she is keeping her options open for a run for the presidency in 2022, even as she admitted facing "challenges" being in the opposition.

“I’m leaving everything open. We still have three years before the next presidential elections. A lot can still happen, and I’ve always said that the presidency is a destiny. There are so many politicians who have sought the presidency and have prepared for it for many years,” Robredo said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.

She said any vice president should have the readiness to assume the top post if anything happens to the president.

“When I ran for the vice presidency, that was one of the prerequisites—that I’m ready to be President. Because the mandate of the Philippine Vice President is to take over if anything happens to the President. So I would not have ran for the vice presidency if I thought that I was not ready for the presidency,” Robredo, a lawyer, said.

Likewise, Robredo said she is confident she will finish her term as Vice President which will end on June 30, 2022 despite facing challenges such as an electoral protest and the sedition complaint filed by the police.

“You know, the threat has always been there since Day 1. The signs have been there," she said.

"The President requested for a separate inauguration. The President asked me to be a member of the Cabinet, and I tried very hard to work well with him as Housing Secretary. But you know, I could not help but be critical of policies which I think were not good for the country. And his stance on the drug war was one of them,” Robredo said.

“All of a sudden, I was asked not to attend Cabinet meetings anymore and we did not have any recourse but to resign because I felt like the portfolio that I was handling would suffer great deal if I did not have a good working relations with the President. I [also] have a protest case still pending against me. There is a sedition case which has been filed against me. So, threats are there. But while I feel like all the challenges are there,. I have trained myself not to be distracted by all the noise. I know that I will be here as Vice President only until 2022,”  Robredo added.

She said she would rather spend her time building on the success of her office’s anti-poverty program dubbed as Angat Buhay,  which combines her office’s limited resources and that of the private sector to serve communities in need.

“It’s been a challenge, especially because if you look at the mandate of the Office of the Vice President. There’s really nothing there except succession. I don’t have the mandate to implement programs. The office does not have the budget to implement programs," Robredo said.  

“We feel this [Angat Buhay program] is very successful. Most of our energies are focused on that. So despite all the noise around us, we’ve been very focused. Despite the challenges, all is good,” she added. —LDF, GMA News