Liberal Party presidential bet Mar Roxas and Sen. Grace Poe. FILE PHOTOS
The Liberal Party is still hopeful it could convince Sen. Grace Poe to be the running mate of its presidential bet, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, according to Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad
“Honestly, the party still hopes that Sen. Grace Poe would consider accepting [their invitation to be Roxas’ running mate] because as the President said, it’s certainly better to have a unified slate, especially those candidates identified with ‘daang matuwid.’ Why would you want to split that road?” Abad, a Liberal Party stalwart, told reporters last week on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings in Cebu.
Also, “simplifying the fight into a one-on-one contest is going to be to the advantage of the administration,” Abad added. The race for the presidency in 2016 is shaping to up to be a three-way derby, in case Poe runs. Besides Roxas, Vice President Jejomar Binay will also run for the top post in the land.
For Abad, Poe being a neophyte in politics could make it difficult for her to immediately become the country’s chief executive.
“She’s new in politics. It’s very difficult to imagine what being president really means… At the end of the day, even if you have the best advisers, you still have to make the decision yourself, on issues like how to deal with China. It’s not going to be easy for somebody who is new in politics to figure these [things] out,” Abad pointed out.
“We’re not saying that she’s not competent to do that. It’s just that [being president is] borne out of experience, that’s part of the difficulty. It’s a question of timing,” he added.
Abad said Poe could make her decision to run for the presidency or join the Liberal Party slate within this month, ahead of the period for filing of certificates of candidacy on Oct. 12-16.
“I’m sure she will not exhaust that period and make the decision up to the last day because when you do that, you have to consider other things also, [such as] who will support you, do you have a line up, or an organization. So you cannot just suddenly make a decision; you have to give it some time. [We think] she will have to decide within the month,” Abad explained.
Only “as soon as she makes up her mind” will the Liberal Party look into other options as vice presidential bet.
When asked who would be tapped to be Roxas’ running mate, Abad noted that “just within the administration there is quite a number of mostly feisty women—[Justice] Sec. Leila de Lima, [Bureau of Internal Revenue] Commissioner Kim Henares, and of course, Congresswoman Leni Robredo.”
Abad noted that these ladies’ names have been cropping up in news reports as possible vice presidential bets to be backed by the Aquino administration, alongside Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano.
But the decision would ultimately be the prerogative of Roxas who “will certainly draw advice from the President,” Abad said.
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