Grace Poe on DQ cases: I don’t want to lose hope on Comelec

POE: Disappointed but this is not the end. FILE PHOTO

Faced with possible disqualification from the 2016 presidential race, Senator Grace Poe managed to joke on Monday about her inability to avoid punches.

“Si FPJ kasi nagpapabugbog. Ako hindi lang siguro marunong umilag,” Poe said at a press conference shortly after the commemoration of the 11th death anniversary of her father, the late Fernando Poe Jr. at the Manila North Cemetery in Manila on Monday.

(FPJ is getting bruises. As for myself, maybe I don’t know how to evade punches.)

“Tinuruan ako ni FPJ noon kung paano sumuntok…paminsan pag may punching bag sya sa bahay, ituturo pero yung ilag hindi pa masyado e,” she said.

(FPJ taught me then how to punch. Sometimes, when he has punching bag in our house, he taught me but not much on evading punches.)

READ: Emotional Poe recalls FPJ’s advice: Don’t give up fighting for others

Aside from a disqualification case seeking to unseat her in the Senate, four more disqualification cases were also filed at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) seeking to disqualify the lady senator from the 2016 presidential race.

READ: Election lawyer: Comelec 1st division vote vs Poe’s citizenship ‘unanimous’

The Comelec’s First and Second Divisions have already decided to disqualify her. However, Poe appealed the case at the Comelec en banc.

“Ayoko namang sabihin na nawawalan ako ng pagasa sa Comelec pero syempre kelangan din nating gawing basehan ang mga naging karanasan natin,” she said.

(I don’t want to say that I am losing hope on Comelec but of course, we have to take my experience as a basis.)

“Kaya para sa akin nilagagay ko sa isip ko na kung ano man ang kahihinatnan nito, ang puno’t dulo pa rin ay ang Korte Suprema. Kaya doon na lang namin tinutuon ang aming paghahanda, pagdadasal na sanay magakaroon ng katarungan sa Korte Suprema,” she added.

(That’s why for me, I always bear in mind that whatever the outcome will be, it lies on the Supreme Court (SC). That’s why we will focus our preparation there, the prayer that there will be justice at SC.)

Asked if the three justices who voted at the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) to unseat her as senator should inhibit from the case filed against her in the Comelec, Poe said she could only hope that the magistrates would voluntarily do it

“Para sa akin, sa tingin ko sa kusang-loob nila ako aasa na sana ay gawin nila,” Poe added.

(For me, I think I will have to rely on their voluntary act that they will inhibit.)

The three justices who voted to unseat Poe in the Senate were Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, Associate Justices Teresita Leonardo de Castro and Arturo Brion.

Carpio earlier said that they would inhibit from the SET case when it reaches the Supreme Court. RAM

READ: Carpio: SET justices to inhibit on DQ case vs Poe in Supreme Court