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Former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV on Wednesday said he will ask the 1SAMBAYAN Coalition group to change his status as the "principal candidate" for president in 2022 polls after reports that Vice President Leni Robredo is preparing to run for governor of Camarines Sur for next year's election.

In a statement, Trillanes said the move is necessary so he can be included in 1SAMBAYAN's selection process.

"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 to vie for the Coalition's nomination," he said.

Trillanes clarified that he is not dividing the opposition and he is willing to step down if Robredo decides to run for president.

"There will only be one unified slate to be nominated by 1SAMBAYAN, and both VP Leni and myself have committed to support and campaign for its nominees," he said.

"In the event that VP Leni definitely decides to run for president before 1SAMBAYAN picks its nominees in July, I would wholeheartedly step aside and withdraw my own candidacy in her favor," he added.

Trillanes said the coalition should focus on the development of policy prescriptions to solve the country's problems, particularly on pandemic response; economic recovery and poverty alleviation; peace and order/security sector reforms; anti-corruption/governance reforms; universal healthcare; foreign policy.

"As I often stressed, the 2022 elections would be the most important elections in our nation's history after 1986. Not only our democracy is at stake, our very survival as a country is at stake, too," he said.

As a well-known critic of President Rodrigo Duterte, Trillanes said in just five years, Duterte has been able to destroy the country's institutions, bankrupted the economy, worsened poverty and corruption, surrendered the interests in the West Philippine Sea, and promoted incompetence in public service.

"Worst of all, he made our people accept killings, immorality, indecency and vulgarity as the new societal norm," he said.

Trillanes said the administration will do "all dirty tricks in the electoral book" to win as they would go straight to prison if the opposition wins next year.

He said at the "appropriate time" they will start campaigning like their "lives depended on it".

"I am confident we can defeat them. Once we win, we would then have the opportunity to rebuild our country and let our people finally enjoy the blessings of democracy," Trillanes said.

Robredo and 1SAMBAYAN has yet to release their statements. Ella Dionisio/DMS