Ditch Escudero, Osmeña advises Poe

Sen. Sergio Osmeña III on Monday said that Sen. Grace Poe should run for President next year as an independent candidate even as he advised her against teaming up with Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero.

“I think the best option (for her) is to run for President as an independent… so she will not be a captive of any political party,” said Osmeña, who has been running in elections as an independent candidate.

Osmeña said that Poe, who is fast emerging as a strong presidential contender, is “winnable” on her own and does not need the backing of political parties, which are just “political cliques” that are “fleeting and temporary alliances.”

Osmeña cited the case of the late Sen. Raul Roco and Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who both ran for President as independent candidates and received “formidable numbers of votes.”

Asked what he thought of a proposed Poe-Escudero tandem, Osmeña said that a “package deal” was not a good idea.

“What if you want to support her but you don’t want Chiz? Why would you put yourself in that position? That’s all I’m saying. It could be Grace-Serge, Grace-anybody. But don’t go for the package, it’s hard enough to sell yourself first. You’re saying, take me and you also have to take everybody else along with me. It’s better not to be saddled with a running mate,” he said.

Poe and Escudero have yet to announce their plans for 2016. But Poe earlier said that if she would run for President, she would be “comfortable” teaming up with Escudero, a family friend who was the spokesman of her late father, Fernando Poe Jr., when he ran for—but lost—the presidency in 2004.

Senate President Franklin Drilon, meanwhile, denied that the Liberal Party was in “panic mode” as it awaits President Aquino’s endorsement of his successor.

“We are the Golden State Warriors, not the Cleveland Cavaliers. We have a deep bench, we are not in panic mode,” Drilon said at the weekly Kapihan sa Diamond Hotel media forum, referring to the two American basketball teams squaring off in the 2016 National Basketball Association championship.