Many victims of Marcos Snr’s brutal reign, during which suspected communists were tortured or disappeared, have reacted angrily to his son’s bid for the top job, protesting and describing it as a “slap in the face”. Consequently, Robredo’s supporters have likened her to former president Corazon Aquino, who restored democracy after Marcos Snr’s downfall.

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Robredo has a challenging fight ahead. In last month’s opinion poll by private pollster Pulse Asia, she placed a distant sixth in respondents’ presidential preferences after Sara Duterte, Marcos Jnr, Manila City Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso, boxer-turned-senator Manny Pacquiao, and Senator Grace Poe. University of the Philippines political science professor Jean Franco, however, said that Robredo had not been a frontrunner in 2016 either. In Pulse Asia’s September 2015 survey Marcos Jnr had ranked third while Robredo had not ranked at all.

Robredo, 56, chairperson of the opposition Liberal Party, said her vice-presidential running mate would be Senator Francis Pangilinan, the party president who is married to the actress Sharon Cuneta.

Her spokesman Barry Gutierrez clarified, though, that Robredo had filed as an “Independent”, meaning not under the Liberal Party banner.

Robredo said she had not planned to run for president but had decided to after an unsuccessful meeting with other presidential contenders to see if they could unite under one candidate.

“What is at stake are the lives and the future of Filipinos,” she said. “Hospitals are filled to capacity, health workers are calling for a timeout, the jobless are going hungry. Meanwhile, billions upon billions of pesos have gone into questionable contracts while millions of Filipinos struggle.”

01:26

‘We will fight’: Leni Robredo announces bid for Philippine presidency against arch-rival Marcos

‘We will fight’: Leni Robredo announces bid for Philippine presidency against arch-rival Marcos

She did not elaborate on why the talks with senators Manny Pacquiao and Panfilo Lacson and Manila mayor Francisco Domagoso – each of whom have also filed candidacy papers for the presidential race – had fallen through, though each one had invited her to join forces or be part of their administration should they win.

She said she had told them, “This is not about positions; this is not a mere transaction. The important thing is to unite – to align along principles, along our shared dreams for the country, and the path that must be taken to achieve these.”

Last July, she said she had no resources to run a “decent” presidential campaign. However, today after much reflection, she had decided to “beat the old and rotten type of politics”.

“I will fight for you until the end. I will bet everything,” she said. “Today, I stand with full resolve: We must free ourselves from the current situation. I will fight. We will fight.”

‘Lady stepping on the serpent’s head’

Writer Chit Roces-Santos, 80, said Robredo’s announcement was reminiscent of when Corazon Aquino vowed to take on Marcos Snr 35 years ago. She said that “the parallel” between the two widows, who were both reluctant to run, had been apparent since Robredo’s victory over Marcos Jnr in the 2016 election.

“I had the feeling the fight was not over as far as the Marcoses were concerned,” Roces-Santos said.

She said that ever since the Marcos family had been ousted from the presidential palace by the peaceful uprising in 1986 they had wanted “vengeance” and that it was “terrifying” how organised their comeback had been.

For Roces-Santos, the issue is deeply personal. Her late uncle, Chino Roces, was detained by the dictator and the newspaper he owned, The Manila Times, shut. Her father, Joaquin, was put under house arrest.

“[Robredo] put a stop to their first attempt to get back. When [Marcos Jnr] filed, I thought she would [run],” she said. “I see her like the lady stepping on the serpent’s head.”

She described Robredo as being a “destiny’s child” like Aquino, whom she described as “quite simple and quiet, a plain housewife but a sophisticated lady” who took up French and mathematics at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in New York.

Philippine dictator’s son Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jnr runs for president

Both Robredo and Aquino were widowed in their forties, though the circumstances in which their husbands died were different.

Aquino’s husband, opposition Senator Benigno Aquino Jnr, had helped lead the opposition to Marcos Snr before he was assassinated in 1983 as he was escorted by government soldiers off a plane. Robredo’s husband, interior and local governments secretary Jesse Robredo, was killed in a plane crash in 2012.

But Roces-Santos said, “It’s going to be hard to keep on comparing them after you get over the widow-suddenly-thrust-into-the-limelight-and-heeding-the-call-of-the-country thing because [Robredo] is definitely more prepared for the presidency.

“She is an economist-lawyer specialising in human rights. She is very much more experienced in administration, the law and the most important for me, she is an economist who doesn’t believe in trickle-down economics but believes in directly strengthening the base, the poor.”

Rift with Duterte

One of Robredo’s actions as vice-president was to create soup kitchens for the poor and jobless, a move that has won her much support but also ridicule from pro-Duterte figures who have given her the nickname “Leni Lugaw” (Leni Congee).

Robredo and Duterte have had a tempestuous relationship through the past six years.

As Duterte exits Philippine election, will daughter Sara run?

On November 17 last year, amid Typhoon Ulysses, Duterte spent the first 20 minutes of a televised address insulting Robredo as “dishonest”, “incapable of truth”, “weak” and “stupid” – apparently because he thought she had accused him of being missing in action, something Robredo denies.

Duterte threatened Robredo, saying that if she ran for president, he would “destroy” her completely.

“This is your nightmare,” Duterte had ranted, before asking where she spent her nights and insinuating she was sleeping around. Robredo responded with a tweet showing a video of flooded homes and said: “When a president is a misogynist, the conversation goes down to this level. This is what I have been doing night after night. I’ve been sleepless for weeks so that every day, we can bring help to those in need.”

00:42

Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos, son of the late Philippine dictator, joins 2022 presidential race

Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos, son of the late Philippine dictator, joins 2022 presidential race

Political analyst Ramon Casiple said Robredo’s spell as vice-president gave her an advantage over Marcos Jnr.

Casiple, the executive director of the Institute of Political and Economic Reform, said one common criticism of Robredo was that she “did nothing” as vice-president. She was briefly the housing tsar and then co-chair of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs.

However, he said this was largely down to President Duterte, who had prevented her from staying in any single job long enough.

“Duterte made sure she did not have anything. That’s why Robredo’s reputation is not tarnished.”

He said even on a shoestring budget, Robredo had been able to make an impact in the fight against the coronavirus because private companies flooded her with contributions which they expected her to distribute.

Added Casiple: “She’s been preparing for the presidency for the last five years.”

The election is expected to take place on May 9.