An Waray, LP ally, won’t go for Roxas

TACLOBAN CITY—A party-list group that had aligned itself with the ruling Liberal Party (LP) in the 2013 elections has decided to take a path to the 2016 elections that is different from the LP’s.

The An Waray party-list group, according to some of its leaders, would not support Interior Secretary Mar Roxas’ presidential bid, but support instead the possible presidential run of Sen. Grace Poe and her potential running mate, Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero.

Florencio Noel, An Waray chair, said the group decided to support Poe and Escudero for President and Vice President, respectively, because the two are advocating the same agenda for Eastern Visayas as An Waray.

This include focus on agriculture and construction of more farm-to-market roads.

Noel, An Waray representative for nine years, said farm-to-market roads in Eastern Visayas would improve the region’s agriculture sector which suffered a massive blow during the onslaught of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” in November 2013.

Eastern Visayas, home to more than 4 million people mostly dependent on agriculture, had become the country’s poorest region as a result of Yolanda.

Noel said the decision to support Poe and Escudero in the 2016 presidential and vice presidential elections was reached by An Waray last month.

He said Escudero was also a “good friend” who stood by An Waray during the failed bid to impeach then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for alleged electoral fraud.