Poe to lose LP perks if she leaves administration, says LP lawmaker

SEN. GRACE Poe stands to lose perks given to members of the administration party if she decides to go alone in 2016, a Liberal Party (LP) lawmaker said on Tuesday.

Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, an LP official, said Poe, the front-runner in the presidential preference surveys, appeared to have made up her mind about declining the ruling party’s offer that she be the running mate of Interior Secretary Mar Roxas.

“As they say, if there’s a will, there’s a way. If there’s none, there are excuses,” Umali told a press forum. “Based on the negative things she has said… it seems she is finding reasons not to be part of the LP,” he said.

Asked if it would be Poe’s loss were she to formally decline the LP offer, he said: “I think so.”

“There are advantages to being allied with the administration and the sitting President, who has endorsing power,” said Umali, deputy spokesperson of the LP’s National Political Council.

In spite of a number of controversies that have hounded his administration, including the Jan. 25 Mamasapano debacle, President Aquino “has stayed strong,” Umali said. “That’s the power of the President.”

“Those are the factors that favor Secretary Roxas,” he added.

Reacting to Poe’s remarks that some of Roxas’ people were stabbing her in the back, Umali said he believed that was not the case.

“It’s not the LP’s habit to do that,” he said.

He said he believed Roxas remained the best choice to run the country. “A person who can sacrifice his ambition is ready for the position,” he said, referring to Roxas’ decision to give way to Aquino in 2010.

“There’s no empirical basis to say she (Poe) is not ready. But like any fruit, it’s better to ripen it first,” Umali said.

Ako Bicol Rep. Rodel Batocabe, leader of the party-list bloc in the majority coalition, however, defended Poe at the same forum, saying experience was not a basis for effective leadership.

“Look at Cory [Aquino]. When she ran for President, people said she knew nothing. When President [Noynoy] Aquino ran, no one thought he would be a good President… My point is, it’s not a basis to say you won’t be a good President if you have no experience,” he said.

Umali did not agree. “Experience is the best teacher,” he said. DJ Yap