2016 run for Palace not in Grace Poe’s plans

Sen. Grace Poe: Running for higher office least of concerns

MANILA, Philippines—Running for higher office in 2016 is the last and least of the concerns of Sen. Grace Poe, who is looking forward to serving out her six-year term in the Senate.

“Nobody has approached me to run for 2016. I’ve also not approached anyone,” Poe, the surprise topnotcher in the May senatorial election, said in a weekly news forum.

“In the future, I may have a different mind-set but for now, I am telling you that I don’t feel that I’m qualified until I prove myself in the Senate,” she added.

Poe, the daughter of actor and one-time presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr., said she has friends who are more than qualified to run for higher office three years from now.

Poe is known to be a close friend of Sen. Francis Escudero, the elder Poe’s campaign spokesman when the actor ran for president against Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2004.

“I guess it’s normal when you’re within the Top Five, you’re considered as a possible [candidate in the next elections]. I won’t have false humilities,” Poe said.

“I’m doing this, as I said, to give honor to my dad. I feel I can do that even in the Senate,” she added.