Drilon: Opposition must back 1 bet, or ‘no chance’ vs Sara in ’28
Former Senate President Franklin Drilon has called on opposition forces to unite and pick a common candidate for the presidential elections in 2028, saying they otherwise don’t stand a chance against perceived front-runner Vice President Sara Duterte.
Drilon, a stalwart of the Liberal Party (LP) who once served as campaign manager for the party’s slate, also believed the impeachment case against Duterte was related to the next presidential race and that no trial in the Senate is likely to happen should Senate President Vicente Sotto III be ousted.
“Let’s face it. Sara Duterte is the strongest candidate in so far as 2028 is concerned unless we take this seriously early enough,” Drilon said during a fireside chat at the launch of his book, “Being Frank: A Memoir,” at the Manila Polo Club in Makati City on Monday.
Drilon was in a photo shared by former Vice President Leni Robredo on Friday last week about a “rare lunch” meeting they had for the first time since the 2022 elections. Also there were Senators Risa Hontiveros, Francis Pangilinan, and Bam Aquino, Mamamayang Liberal Rep. Leila de Lima, Akbayan Rep. Chel Diokno, and former Aquino administration Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad.
Agree on process
The meeting sparked talk of LP, Akbayan and other opposition groups forming a common ticket in the elections two years from now, with the Marcos administration yet to find a viable candidate to succeed President Marcos.
When asked during the book launch if opposition leaders were talking about putting up a common candidate, Drilon said he was not authorized to speak for the group but offered a personal position.
“In my mind, we need a single candidate,” he said, noting that the Philippines does not have a political party system or convention to choose a party candidate.
“[A]ll those today who are interested in 2028 who are not identified with the administration should come to an agreement that whoever is chosen in a process which they should all agree on, then that should be the common candidate. Otherwise the opposition, the non-Duterte forces, will have no chance,” Drilon said.
Drilon said the process for selection should be put on the table for all the parties to agree on and the search should be done immediately. Similar efforts to field a common candidate in the 2022 elections failed.
“This is my personal view—we should have a candidate by the end of the year so that you have the whole of next year to campaign and raise funds. You cannot raise funds on the basis of ideas, but you raise funds because you believe in a candidate. So unless you have a face, you have a person who is an embodiment of the principles you believe in, it will not be easy to raise funds,” he said.
If Sotto is ousted
He declined to answer if the opposition leaders are already converging around a potential candidate, even as Robredo, Hontiveros, and Aquino were being mentioned as possible choices.
The new impeachment complaints against Duterte will also have an impact on the 2028 elections, according to Drilon, who was Senate President for four times since becoming a senator in 1995.
He served as a senator-judge in the Senate impeachment trials of then President Joseph Estrada and then Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona, both of which he discussed in his 254-page memoir highlighting his eventful 34 years in government spanning six presidencies.
‘You have no choice’
“I view the present events, episodes in the impeachment of the Vice President and the President as a prelude related to the presidential elections in 2028. I have no doubt in my mind,” he said. “And I’ll say this, if Senate President Sotto is replaced by the majority as Senate President you will not see a trial in the impeachment of the Vice President even if the House would elevate the complaint to the Senate,” he added.
But if Sotto remains at the helm, the public can expect the Senate to proceed immediately to trial as he has publicly said so, he said.
Asked if it was important that the corruption cases against incumbent senators, some of whom are perceived allies of Duterte, should be pursued immediately, Drilon said he wouldn’t want to be in Sotto’s shoes. (See related story on this page.)
“It is extremely difficult, I tell you. The reality is you meet each other every day in session, and you accuse your fellow senators of being involved in this anomaly but you have no choice. That is what is in the record, in the testimony on record, and you just have to decide in accordance with your conscience and on the evidence that were presented,” Drilon said.
It would not be farfetched, he said, that the President would have a role in the impeachment of his former ally and running mate in the 2022 elections.
“You think I will sound credible when I say because of the separation of powers the President will not intervene? I tell you phone calls are being made as we talk. Because impeachment is not purely a judicial process, it is also a political process,” he said.
