Vice President Leni Robredo will announce her plan for the 2022 simultaneous national and local elections by September, her spokesperson said on Saturday.

“Well, I’ve heard her say that it could be as late as September. It could be sooner than September. But quite honestly, the only person who can say at this point is her. She’s going through her own process,” lawyer Barry Gutierrez said in a television interview.

Gutierrez said the vice president has been very clear since the start of the year that she will be focusing first on the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are still much in the midst of implementing COVID response operations at the office and that’s what takes up her time. So, that’s really the reality so she will make the decision once it’s time,” he said.

Gutierrez said Robredo will respect the 1Sambayan process. However, he said it is hard to speculate at this point on what will happen if she is chosen as the party’s presidential candidate.

“Everybody can rest assured that she is weighing this very carefully. She takes her responsibility as the leader of the opposition very seriously. And in her own time, she will make her decision known,” he said.

“Respecting the process simply means that she understands the need for the opposition to unite around a common candidate. She thinks that the 1Sambayan process is a good venue for actually attempting to reach this particular unity. But as to whether she will decide to run in the end regardless of what 1Sambayan says, that is something that is left to her judgment,” he added.

Even though there are already names floating around as possible presidential candidates for next year’s elections, Gutierrez said nobody has formally declared that he or she will be running.

“Everybody is playing coy or they have other people supposedly create a clamor for them to run. So at this point, I’m not really surprised that nobody has come forward. But in the case of the Vice President, she has been very consistent even before this entire conversation has heated up in the last few weeks,” he said.

Gutierrez also said there is still no final decision yet on whether she will be running as governor.

He added that Robredo's change of address is more of a family's decision and not a political one.

Robredo recently registered for the national ID system in Magarao town in Camarines Sur and not in Naga City where she is a registered voter.

“She remains open to run for president. And that has been her position and consistent statement ever since, you know, speculation about her plans for 2022 has come up. This is by now familiar ground to us,” Gutierrez said. Ella Dionisio/DMS