Leni Robredo shuts door to Senate run in 2025

MANILA, Philippines – Former vice president Leni Robredo said on Friday, June 21, that she is not running for the Senate in the 2025 elections.

Robredo confirmed this in a media interview after the episcopal ordination of Bishop Luisito Occiano at the Minor Basilica and National Shrine of Our Lady of Peñafrancia in Naga City.

Asked if her door remains open for a Senate run, Robredo said: “Sinarado ko na kaya nagpaalam na ako sa LP. Kaya ako nagpaalam sa LP na hindi na ako tatakbo sa Senado.”

(I have closed [the door] which is why I informed the Liberal Party. I informed the LP that I will not run for senator.)

What she prefers, she said, is to run for Naga City mayor in next year’s elections, but an official announcement on this would only be made after she completes a number of tasks, including informing her Angat Buhay Foundation family about it and wrapping up her obligations, commitments, and speaking engagements.

“Pero ang preparasyon talaga, patungo sa pagtakbo bilang alkalde ng Naga…. Hindi ko pa siya gagawin hangga’t hindi ko pa napaplantsa,” she said.

(But the preparations are headed toward running for Naga mayor…. I won’t officially announce it until I have ironed out everything.)

Robredo said she had informed the LP about her plan to run for Naga mayor as well as some members of the political opposition. A day earlier, Albay 1st District Representative Edcel Lagman, LP president, said that he and the former vice president had discussed her plan to run for mayor in her hometown.

Robredo said her discussion with Naga City Mayor Nelson Legacion in April “played a big part” in her decision-making. Legacion’s career as a Naga City official started when Robredo’s late husband, then-Naga Mayor Jesse Robredo, appointed him as city legal officer in 2001.

Jesse Robredo, who served as Naga mayor for a total of six terms, was the first Filipino mayor to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service in 2000.

The former vice president also said that her preference to run for Naga mayor involved a “lengthy balancing act.”

“Maraming kunsiderasyon: kung saan ako pinakakailangan, saan parang pinaka magiging epektibo, ano ang abot ng makakaya ng aking mga resources. Maraming kunsiderasyon kaya matagal ang pag desisyon,” she said.

(There are many considerations: where I’m needed most, where I’ll be most effective, what my resources can afford. There were many considerations that’s why it took time to decide.)

Robredo has been included in pre-election surveys on potential senatorial bets, but she was outside the so-called Magic 12 as of the last round of surveys in March.

Robredo was a single-term Camarines Sur congresswoman before she got thrown into the national spotlight as the vice presidential candidate of the then-ruling Liberal Party in 2016. She narrowly won the contest, beating Ferdinand Marcos Jr. who filed an electoral protest against her. The Supreme Court affirmed her victory in 2021.

Robredo has been out of the political scene since she lost her presidential bid in 2022, a campaign marked by the “Pink Wave,” her volunteer movement that defied traditional campaigns. – Rappler.com