Oh no, not again!

I nearly fell off my rocking chair at what to me is a most hare-brained suggestion that Leni Robredo make another go at the presidency in 2028 with Koko Pimentel as her running mate. After getting clobbered by, of all people, a Marcos, in 2022, Robredo is all but politically dead. She has become irrelevant.

The suggestion was made in the aftermath of the minor hysterics that attended the ouster of Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as senior deputy speaker at the House of Representatives. The ouster was correctly seen as the opening salvo for the 2028 presidential wars. What was strange was the swift introduction of Robredo into that scenario.

The main protagonists in the 2028 presidential race will most certainly be Vice President Sara Duterte and Speaker Martin Romualdez, triggering the unfortunate but not unexpected breakup of the coalition that ran roughshod over Robredo and installed President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos in power by way of unprecedented numbers.

Yet there she is. Or more precisely, there goes her name again, inserted by those who just cannot seem to get it that there is no way a dead horse can be beaten back to life. For all intents and purposes, she is politically dead. Robredo cannot anymore be revived. Not even if Koko Pimentel is her running mate. More so if Koko Pimentel is her running mate.

I do not know what there is in Koko that makes him not fare very well in elections, whether local or national. He is a good and decent man from an honorable family. He is very well-educated and was a Bar topnotcher. But in his first foray into politics, he lost the mayoral race in his hometown of Cagayan de Oro.

In the 2007 senatorial election, he placed last at 12th place, winning only by election protest against Migz Zubiri and did not get proclaimed until 2011. In the 2013 senatorial race, Koko placed a far 8th, or below the top half of six. In the 2019 election, while he still won, Koko placed even lower at 10th place.

If, as suggested, Koko runs as the vice presidential running mate of Leni Robredo, he will be in for an even tougher race. The presidential and vice presidential elections are what are called "first past the post" contests, meaning the first to cross the line (highest number of votes) is the only winner. Given his Senate race history, things do not look inspiring.

Both Robredo and Pimentel may just have to make do by starting over again in the local races. But even if they win in 2025 as representatives of their respective districts, any national position above the Senate in 2028 will be tough on either. There are new political configurations in place, new political faces representing new political constituencies.

If it is any consolation, Pimentel does not carry the stigma that Robredo does. Robredo, in 2022, succeeded in only one thing --allowing herself to become the face of what has come to be known as the very un-Filipino cancel culture. The campaign her camp waged had been so hateful and vicious it saw the breakup of families and disintegration of friendships.

Whatever is left of Robredo is forever marked as politically untenable. She is passe. The only reason she is even in this very conversation is because her loyalists still have the gumption and nerve to mention her name. What they do not know, sadly, is that in longing reverie there is sometimes self-flagellation.

"For all intents and purposes, she is politically dead. Robredo cannot anymore be revived. "