Robredo to run as Naga City mayor; De Lima as partylist rep — LP

Former vice president Leni Robredo is set to run for the local chief executive post in Naga City, Camarines Sur in the upcoming 2025 midterm elections, the Liberal Party of the Philippines announced on Friday.

According to LP executive vice president Erin Tañada, Robredo will join the mayoralty bid in her hometown following her defeat in the presidential elections in 2022.

Tañada also formally announced the candidacy of former senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan for the Senate, who ran with Robredo in the 2022 elections for vice president.

Pangilinan is eyeing a comeback to the Senate along with former senator Bam Aquino, who dropped his senatorial bid in 2022 to focus as Robredo’s campaign manager.

Meanwhile, former senator Leila de Lima will be the lead nominee of the Mamamayang Liberal Party along with Tañada and former Ifugao Representative Teddy Baguilat.

De Lima accepted the party’s nomination and vowed to faithfully advocate for social justice.

“In all humility and conviction, I accepted today the nomination as a lead nominee of the party-list Mamamayang Liberal, the sectoral wing of the Liberal Party (LP), for next year's elections. My co-nominees are former Reps. Teddy Baguilat and Erin Tañada,” she said.

De Lima, a staunch critic of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, was acquitted by the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Branch 205 from her final and remaining drug case.

The former lawmaker was accused of pocketing payoffs from drug lords when she was still the Justice secretary in 2016 to raise money for her senatorial bid.