MANILA, Philippines — The formerly dominant Liberal Party is urging its defeated presidential candidate Mar Roxas to run again as senator, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon confirmed Monday.

“We are suggesting to him to consider it but candidacy is a personal decision. But yes, we are suggesting to him to take a good look at it,” Drilon said in an interview Tuesday.

But Roxas has not made a decision yet, he added.

“He is also enjoying his private life,” Drilon said.

The former LP president and standard-bearer withdrew from most public engagements after losing to President Rodrigo Duterte in the 2016 national polls.

But he was again placed under spotlight along with his wife, Korina Sanchez, after Kris Aquino slammed the television show host for featuring her former husband, James Yap.

Roxas placed in the 14-19 bracket in the pre-senatorial election survey released by Pulse Asia last week.

He served in the upper house from 2004 to 2010.

Not easy

Drilon admitted that the erstwhile ruling party is facing challenges in 2019 polls as it squares off with the popular Duterte and the resource-rich PDP-Laban.

“In a mid-term election, you have to face the fact that you have a president with a 70 percent approval rating and it’s not easy to put up an opposition ticket. But the opposition is there,” the LP stalwart said, adding that they are still working on a slate.

Political analyst Dennis Coronacion said that it has historically been difficult for the opposition to form a line-up for the mid-term polls as “most candidates want to run in a party with the most resources.

LP earlier said that it would field a “resistance coalition” in 2019, stressing the need for a genuine opposition line-up.

Of the 15 bets who have a statistical chance of making it to the top 12 in the Pulse Asia survey, Bam Aquino was the only opposition figure in the list.

READ: Popular Duterte, resource-rich PDP-Laban mean tough times for opposition in 2019