Leni Robredo as the ‘second coming’ of Cory Aquino

After being rejected by survey-topper Grace Poe, the Liberal Party has settled with Leni Robredo as Mar Roxas’ running mate in the 2016 presidential race. The administration’s problem is how to improve Robredo’s survey performance, especially since she has been quite irrelevant nationally.

Part of the LP’s strategy is to portray Robredo as the “second coming” of Cory Aquino in a way that the incumbent President was the “second coming” of Ninoy. Leni is now being painted as the martyr-widow who sacrificed her private life to answer the call to serve the nation. We even saw a split-photo circulating around social media showing Cory Aquino sprinkling holy water on Ninoy’s coffin and, below that, Leni Robredo also sprinkling water on Jesse Robredo’s coffin.

C’mon! Is LP trying to appeal to the sympathy of the voters to make Robredo more viable as a vice presidential candidate? Well, who knows? It worked for President Aquino in 2010. It might work again for Robredo this 2016.

—SUNNY STA MARIA, sunnystamaria@gmail.com