Poe grandson: Treat Arroyo humanely

MANILA, Philippines—Although his family was traumatized by his grandfather’s death from a stroke amid rumors of being cheated in the 2004 elections, Fernando Poe Jr.’s grandson acceded that the woman accused of stealing the presidency in the election should be treated humanely.

“As a Filipino citizen and voter, I do not recognize her as [former] President. But she’s still a human being, and as a Christian and fellow human being, I think she should be treated humanely. She shouldn’t be ridiculed and pushed,” Brian Daniel Poe Llamanzares, 19, said of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s hospital arrest, at the Kapihan sa Diamond Hotel media forum on Monday morning.

Poe, an action movie star icon, died seven months after losing to Arroyo in the 2004 presidential race. He had alleged electoral fraud, what with some areas registering zero votes for him, which his family thought to be “highly unlikely,” Llamanzares said.

Arroyo is now facing an electoral sabotage charge at the Pasay Regional Trial Court for allegedly conspiring to manipulate results in the 2007 senatorial elections. She is under hospital arrest at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center.

Llamanzares, meanwhile, led the youth sector in filing a motion for inhibition last week against Arroyo appointee Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona to prevent him from handling cases involving the former President.

Asked if he would join in the rumored filing of impeachment proceedings against Corona, the student leader said he “didn’t want to jump the gun.”

“I want to see if he (Corona) has that character to set an example for the youth today and for our countrymen…If he were to inhibit himself, there are people who will respect him for it,” Llamanzares said.