SEN. GRACE POE: I am grateful for the President’s kind words. No one can deny his reforms in governance and the economic gains. I believe in his vision. PRIB PHOTO
After getting unexpected praise from President Benigno Aquino III, Sen. Grace Poe on Friday said she would look to him for direction in her role in shaping the future of the Philippines.
In a text message to the Inquirer, Poe said she shared Mr. Aquino’s dreams for the country even before she was elected to the Senate in 2013.
“I intend to seek his guidance in whatever role I may find myself in for the good of our country,” Poe said.
Poe said she was grateful for the President’s kind words and she praised him for his reform programs and policies that turned around the country’s economy.
“No one can deny the reforms in governance and the economic gains under his administration. I believed in his vision for our country even before I was elected into office,” Poe said.
“He has persevered with his vision even through many challenges,” she added.
READ: Poe to seek Aquino’s guidance regarding role in the future
President Aquino, in a radio interview on Thursday, said he was convinced that Poe could continue and sustain the gains of his administration, the primary requirement he had set in picking a candidate he would endorse to take his place in Malacañang in next year’s presidential election.
“We worked hard for [the gains of my administration]. We worked on them with blood, sweat and tears so they could become permanent and not just last for six years,” Mr. Aquino said.
“And we believe that Senator Poe is one of those we expect to continue, and can really continue, [what we have started],” he said.
Poll standing
Mr. Aquino has begun talks with prospective administration candidates for 2016, including Poe, who ranks second to Vice President Jejomar Binay in the polls.
READ: Aquino: Poe can really continue what I’ve started
The daughter of the late movie actor Fernando Poe Jr. and formerly head of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board, Poe, an independent, topped the 2013 senatorial election, a surprise showing that made her the most-sought-after candidate among political parties aiming to supplant the ruling Liberal Party (LP) next year.
Mr. Aquino and Poe met two weeks ago, but they are not ready to disclose what they talked about.
Political luster
Poe’s political luster makes her a bankable presidential candidate, but several members of the LP insist that Interior Secretary Mar Roxas should be the party’s standard-bearer, and that Poe, running as his vice president, would increase his chances of winning the election.
READ: Aquino wants Poe to run as Roxas’ veep in 2016 – Osmeña
WHAT ME, WITHDRAW? “I started it, I will finish it,” says Vice President Jejomar Binay despite a slew of corruption charges against him. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Roxas, however, does not shine in the poll, placing third behind Poe and Binay in the March 20-23 Social Weather Stations poll.
In that survey, Poe, with 31 percent voter support, is seen as threatening the lead of Binay, who had 36 percent. Roxas was in third place with 15 percent, tied with the tough-talking mayor of Davao City, Rodrigo Duterte.
With developments in the Senate and Ombudsman investigation into allegations of corruption against him—the latest being a Court of Appeals order freezing his bank accounts—the Vice President could head deeper south in the polls or even lose his lead to Poe.
Poe is leading in the vice presidential polls, making her attractive to other parties that have already chosen their presidential candidates.
Binay’s United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) wants Poe to be the Vice President’s running mate, but the PDP’s Laban is also considering her as a sidekick for Duterte—if “The Punisher,” as Time magazine calls the Davao mayor, decides to run for President.
MUTUAL ADMIRATION Mr. Aquino and Poe have lately been swapping praises for each other. REM ZAMORA
Independence, courage
Though a junior senator, Poe drew public admiration for her handling of the Senate investigation of a botched police counterterrorism operation in Mamasapano, Maguindanao province, which left 44 Special Action Force commandos, 17 Moro rebels and three civilians dead on Jan. 25.
The clash between the policemen and the rebels set back the peace process between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and plunged President Aquino into his worst political crisis since coming into power in 2010.
Poe, chair of the Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs that led the inquiry into the clash, said in her investigation report that the buck should stop with the President and that the public would be less confused if he accepted responsibility for the bungled operation.
She also said that the President and other high-ranking officials could have done more to minimize government casualty in the operation.
The adverse findings, however, did not diminish Poe’s standing as an administration ally. Rather, her independence and the public praise that she earned for it made her more valuable to Malacañang.
Poe has not decided whether to seek higher office, but her supporters, even those from the opposition, think she should run for President.
Better than Aquino
For opposition Sen. JV Ejercito, Poe would be an even better President than Mr. Aquino.
“I think Senator Poe can perform better than P-Noy. She has a good heart for the masses that she inherited from her parents, especially FPJ. So I think she will be more sensitive to the feelings of the people,” Ejercito said on Friday.
FPJ is the nickname of Poe’s father, a bosom buddy of Ejercito’s father, Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada.
Ejercito earlier said his family would be torn if Poe would seek the presidency, as she would be going up against their party’s own standard-bearer, Binay. He noted that the Ejercito-Estradas have close ties with the Poes.
Mayor Estrada, a former President, always speaks fondly of FPJ and of his willingness to support his daughter.
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