Author’s Note
This piece is a creative reflection written in the imagined voice of former Vice President Leni Robredo. It is not her statement, nor does it claim to represent her actual views. For transparency, I share that I actively supported and voted for her in the 2022 presidential elections.
Hello!
This is my nth time speaking about something that is becoming more urgent with each passing day—the 2028 presidential elections.
And before anything else, thank you.
I will never get tired of thanking you for the trust you continue to give me—for believing that I can take on something as demanding as the presidency. Your encouragement means more than you probably realize.
I remember your birthday gift to me in the middle of the 2022 campaign—over 400,000 of you gathering in Pasay. I can still see it: the sheer number, the energy, the hope. At the same time, there was another rally in Sampaloc that night. But what stood before me spoke for itself—28 times over, in numbers that were hard to ignore.
No survey—especially one with a sample size of 1,200, a drop in the bucket—could fully capture that kind of ground reality.
I remember, too, your tireless work. The endorsements came from everywhere: academe, professionals, religious groups, NGOs, cooperatives, fisherfolk, labor, Bangsamoro, indigenous communities, students, even our seniors. Those weren’t just endorsements—they were the fruit of genuine, selfless service.
But I also remember something else.
Seventeen days before election day, someone publicly predicted that I would lose. That alone wasn’t remarkable. What was—was the precision. A 16-million-vote margin.
You almost want to call it prophetic—a Filipino Nostradamus moment. And yet, it barely registered in the national conversation.
Then came election night.
I won’t go into the painful details. The position paper titled “A Preponderance of Evidence Shows That The May 09, 2022 Election Was Rigged” by Eliseo Rio lays out the concerns—especially the near-impossibility of counting and transmitting over 20 million votes within an hour after polls closed.
To this day, with the Supreme Court choosing not to go beyond COMELEC’s discretion, the issue remains unresolved—no definitive closure, just a lingering question mark.
So, I find myself asking—not out of bitterness, but out of honest reflection.
Who would still want to run for president in 2028?
But maybe the better question is not personal, but national:
Can we still hold a fair, clean, and honest election in 2028?
If the answer is yes, it cannot be by hope alone. It has to be by design.
And that’s where we begin.
A Civic Reform Agenda for 2028
If we want elections we can trust, we have to fix the system—not someday, but now. The good news is that many of these reforms don’t require changing the Constitution. What they require is political will, public pressure, and citizens who refuse to look away.
Follow The Money
Campaign finance has long shaped outcomes from behind the scenes.
Requiring real-time disclosure of donations and expenditures—within 48 hours—brings sunlight into the process.
Lower spending caps and a ban on anonymous donations help level the playing field, making elections less about wealth and more about genuine support.
Make Results Verifiable
Trust is not enough—we need systems people can check.
Independent audits of vote-counting machines by third-party IT experts should be standard. Manual audits must be expanded, not minimized.
Poll workers should be properly trained, fairly paid, and protected from both error and undue influence.
Credibility grows when the process is transparent at every step.
Fight Disinformation With Structure
Disinformation is not just noise—it distorts choice.
Social media platforms must be held accountable for coordinated false campaigns. Accredited fact-checkers should be supported, and media fairness rules enforced.
Voters deserve access to accurate, balanced information—not narratives designed to mislead.
Put Citizens At The Center
Democracy works best when people are active, informed participants.
Watchdog groups like NAMFREL and PPCRV should be formally integrated into parallel vote tabulation. Voter education must be expanded, especially in communities vulnerable to vote-buying.
Overseas voting should be simplified, so more Filipinos can participate without unnecessary barriers.
Protect The Vote—On The Ground And Online
Election integrity requires both physical and digital security.
Peace zones, strict enforcement against vote-buying, and bans on the misuse of government resources help protect voters on the ground.
At the same time, cybersecurity must be strengthened—through real-time monitoring, rapid response teams, and transparent audit trails—to guard against hacking and interference in election systems.
Address Political Dynasties.
We cannot ignore the structural imbalance created by entrenched political families.
Enacting and enforcing anti-dynasty measures, strengthening campaign finance rules, and reforming political parties to encourage internal democracy can gradually open the field.
In parallel, voters must be empowered with a deeper understanding of how dynastic politics affects governance and accountability.
Where This Leads
This is more than a list of reforms. It is a shared responsibility.
Lawmakers, COMELEC, civil society, and ordinary citizens all have a role to play. Without meaningful change, we risk repeating what remains unresolved.
The philosopher George Santayana warned.
The unanswered questions from 2022 are not just about the past—they are warnings for the future. And they point to one clear conclusion: we must do better.
A Final Thought
Let me leave you with something bittersweet.
If we actually succeed in putting these reforms in place—if we truly fix the system—have you ever considered that maybe I wouldn’t need to run anymore?
That’s the bitter part.
Because with a fair and open system, many others—many Lenis, perhaps even better than me—will step forward. Leaders who today hesitate, not because they lack heart, but because they doubt the process.
And that is the sweet part.
A country where leadership is not limited to a few, but open to many.
So once again, thank you—for your trust, your courage, and your care.
May God bless our hopes for this land we love—the Philippines.
Content & editing put together in collaboration with Bing Microsoft AI-powered Co-Pilot & ChatGPT
Collage Art by Canva; Photos courtesy of GMA Network, Facebook, Philippine News Agency, x.com, Rappler
Still photos courtesy of Getty Images, The Times of Israel, ChatGPT Image Creator, WBUR, A-Z Quotes, Instagram, Rappler
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