30 party-list groups go for Grace, Chiz
BACOLOD CITY—Thirty party-list representatives have thrown their support behind the tandem of presidential candidate Sen. Grace Poe and her running mate, Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero, Rep. Agapito Guanlo of the Butil party-list group announced here.
The groups represented by the party-list legislators have a combined membership of at least 10 million votes across different sectors, Guanlo said at a press conference here on Friday at the L Fisher Hotel.
Poe said she was grateful for the support of the party-list groups. “It is heartwarming,” she said.
“We are happy with the party-list groups’ support,” she said.
“They represent a strong force,” she added.
The independent candidate said she and Escudero were waiting for other groups that had expressed support for their tandem to come out with their announcement but that she would not want to preempt the groups.
Hundreds of people turned out in her sorties in Negros Occidental province, but when asked to comment if this meant the province was not Liberal Party (LP) territory as the ruling party had claimed, Poe played coy.
“It just proves that our countrymen want to hear the platforms of all candidates,” she said.
She said she received a warm welcome in Negros, which is the hometown of her adoptive mother, actress Susan Roces.
Poe said her search for her biological parents was not over but that this did not, in any way, belittled the time, love and sacrifice that her adoptive parents, Roces and the late actor Fernando Poe Jr., had given her.
Her sortie in Negros Occidental also became time to reminisce for Poe.
On her visit to the grave of Tessie Valencia, the woman who took her before she was adopted by the Poe couple, the senator said “she was the only one who really spoiled me.”
“My dad was very loving, but my ‘ninang’ (godmother) showered a lot of love on me because she was an Ilongga,” Poe said.
“My teeth got destroyed because she gave me all the bubble gum I wanted. She wanted me to always be dressed in red and we fought because, as a child, I knew that I wanted my clothes to be cotton and white,” Poe said.
“I cannot forget her because she cooked well, took good care of the house, was very caring and jealous,” she added.
Also in the press conference at the L Fisher Hotel, Rep. Alfredo Abelardo Benitez, a member of the LP, reiterated his support for Poe and said several other members of the local political group, Love Negros, were also supporting her.
He, however, could not say how many mayors belonging to Love Negros were supporting Poe.
