Roxas told: Forget Poe, focus on Leni Robredo instead

SENATOR Serge Osmeña III has a piece of advice for Interior Secretary Mar Roxas: “It’s always painful to be rejected by a woman but sometimes you have to move on.”

Osmeña gave this unsolicited advice after Roxas met with Senator Grace Poe last Sunday and formally offered her to become his running mate in 2016.

“After five hours…? Can’t they take a hint?” he said, referring to the meeting that reportedly lasted for hours.

“Maybe he (Roxas) should learn to call a spade a spade. It’s always painful to be rejected by a woman but sometimes you have to move on,” said Osmeña.

Instead of pursuing Poe, Osmeña said Roxas should focus his attention on Camarines Sur Representative Leni Robredo, who is also being pushed by administration allies to be his running mate next year.

‘They have to prepare Leni also. You can’t just pick somebody out of the blue and dump her in the boiling pan… They have to brief her on several issues,” he said.

Osmeña earlier said that Robredo would be a runaway winner if she joins the vice presidential race in 2016.

READ: ‘Leni Robredo will beat Escudero’ for VP, says Osmeña

But even without Poe, Osmeña believes that Roxas “will do well” if he would re-examine his campaign strategy, citing as example the resurrection of the latter’s “Mr. Palenge” campaign.

READ: As 2016 nears, Mar Roxas resurrecting ‘Mr. Palengke’

“Hindi sya nagko-connect …Kapag sinasabi, Mr. Palenge for example, ano yun?” said the senator.

“That’s not his appeal and so he has to look for what appeals to the people most to be able to be successful,” he further said.