Grace Poe FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – It’s Senator Grace Poe, not Poe-Llamanzares, at least when she is in the Senate.
No less than the senator herself requested this when she guested for the first time in a regular weekly forum in the Senate on Thursday.
“Just use Poe if possible. I already talked to my husband,” Poe said in Filipino.
“Kaya naman ako nanalo dahil sa tatay ko; hindi naman ako aabot nang ganyan. Wag na tayong maglokohan. Sino ba ang mananalo ng ganyang kalaking margin? (I won because of my father. Let’s not fool ourselves. Who could win with such a big margin),” she said, referring to the late Fernando Poe Jr.
It was Poe’s first run for public office in 2013 and she clinched the top spot in the senatorial race.
“I have no illusion that I won because of my dad’s legacy. I intend to keep it that way. My work is my way of giving honor to him so I intend to keep Poe,” she said.
Poe noted that her colleague, another neophyte senator, Nancy Binay, also dropped her husband’s surname, Angeles, and keeps the last name of her father, Vice President Jejomar Binay.