Grace Poe asks: Will LP support me if I run in 2016?

WILL the Liberal Party (LP) support a non-member like Senator Grace Poe should she decide to run for a higher post?

Poe herself asked this question when she met with President Benigno Aquino III before the latter left for Chicago last week.

READ: Aquino admits meeting with Poe to discuss 2016 plans

During the meeting, the senator said the President made no categorical offer to her either to run for president or vice president in 2016.

Senator Grace Poe. FILE PHOTO

“Pero ito ang malinaw na tinanong ko sa kanya. Mr. President, kung saka-sakali at na konsidera ako kung ano pa man, hindi naman po ako Liberal? Sususportahan nyo po ba ako?” she said when interviewed by reporters at the Senate on Monday.

“Ang sabi naman nya, yun nga ang gusto nya na magkaroon   ng konsultasyon dun sa grupo nya para kahit hindi naman eksaktong Liberal pero ang prinsipyo na isinusulong nya para sa reporma ay may kakayayan ng taong gawin yan ay gusto nyang suportahan…But of course the President has to consult his party for the approval pero ang sabi nya that he would like to make that commitment.”

Asked then if the President meant that she does not have to join the administration’s LP   in case she runs for a higher post next year,   Poe said: “I think the vey fact that he called to a meeting might indicate that. Of course it will all depend in the end if it will actually happen.”

“At the end, the party decision will prevail but the President mentioned that the party is not strictly political. There are non- government organizations involved as well, private citizens who give them advice so if they will really listen, I don’t know   what the President meant by least common denominator but something that will unite the party, then you don’t necessarily have to be a sworn member of the party just like what they did in the senatorial elections in 2013,” she pointed out.

Poe said Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, who was being pushed by his partymates in the LP to be its standard-bearer, joined her and the President during the latter part of the meeting.

She said the President simply told her and Roxas the need for administration to have an alternative candidate to the opposition’s bet, Vice President Jejomar Binay, who has declared his presidential bid in 2016.

Asked if she was open to run with Roxas, Poe said: “I can’t say   who I am open to run with because at this point I’m still considering whether I’m actually going to run.”

She said she and the President would meet again when the latter returns to the country.

“Sabi nya pag balik nya mag-uumpisa na kaming mag isip tungkol dyan,” Poe added. AC