Roxas to Poe: Be my VP

By: Leila B. Salaverria - 10 years ago

Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, the prospective presidential candidate of the ruling Liberal Party, has asked Sen. Grace Poe to be his vice presidential running mate. FILE PHOTOS

Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, the prospective presidential candidate of the ruling Liberal Party (LP), has asked Sen. Grace Poe to be his vice presidential running mate.

But Poe, fast emerging as a presidential candidate, has not made a commitment to Roxas.

“The plan of Senator Roxas is clear to me now. Sometimes, when we see each other, he mentions that it would be good if we [run] together,” Poe told reporters on Wednesday when asked if Roxas had asked her to be his running mate.

While she could not say whether Roxas’ statement was a formal offer, she said she thought it was “more than just feelers.”

“I think it’s clear. He is ready,” she added, referring to Roxas’ statement on Tuesday that he was ready to continue President Aquino’s anticorruption campaign.

Aquino said on Monday that Roxas was on the top of the list of the administration’s candidates in the 2016 elections.

Roxas, however, is lagging behind Vice President Jejomar Binay and Poe in the presidential polls, and many allies of Aquino have suggested that Poe run for President to give the administration a better chance of winning the elections.

But many LP members want Roxas to be their standard-bearer with Poe as his vice presidential running mate.

Poe said, however, that she had yet to decide whether to join Roxas in his run for Malacañang.

She said she had told Roxas that while there were things they had in common, such as the desire to continue the fight against corruption, she also had views that differed from his in other matters.

Poe said there were things that she believed the Aquino administration had failed to do.

“It seems many of our poor countrymen have been neglected,” she said, mentioning one of what she thought were the Aquino administration’s failures.

Poe said her friendship with Roxas would not be the only basis of her decision.

“You have to have the same views on things and trust in each other before [making a decision],” she said.

Poe said she last spoke with Roxas last week, after they unexpectedly bumped into each other in a restaurant.

Independent is better

Poe also said she appreciated the benefits of being an independent.

She ran as an independent in 2013, but was taken in as a guest candidate of the administration in the senatorial election. She topped the race for the Senate.

“For me, there are a lot of benefits to being independent. We need to remind ourselves that our loyalty should be to the people who elected us and not to one party. So for me, it’s easier if you are free to make decisions not based on the dictates of one party, but based on your conscience,” she said.

Poe also said she and Sen. Francis Escudero, with whom she has close ties, were also discussing plans for 2016, but she would not say whether the talks were serious.

That does not mean, however, that she has made a commitment, she said.

In the first place, she said, she has not decided whether to run for higher office.

“I have not reached that point, so it does not mean that my talking to someone indicates that [I have committed to run with that candidate],” she said.

Support from Escudero

Escudero, for his part, promised to support Poe, whatever her decision would be.

“I’ve already told Senator Poe that whatever her decision, I will always be behind her, giving the same support and assistance I gave to her late father,” Escudero said.

Escudero served as the spokesman for Poe’s father, the late movie actor Fernando Poe Jr., who unsuccessfully ran for President in 2004.