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.