Junie Rodriguez and Teresa Rodriguez Victoriano say they just like to help Grace Poe determine who her parents are and are not interested in any talk about cash reward. Their sister, Victoria, who died years ago, is believed to be Poe’s mother. (Photo by Nestor P. Burgos, Inquirer Visayas, Dec. 20, 2015)
BUENAVISTA, Guimaras– “We did not come out for money. It’s easy to prove if she is part of our family or not.”
This was the reaction of siblings of the alleged biological mother of Sen. Grace Poe on the cash reward offered for information that would lead to the true identity of Poe’s biological parents.
Junie Rodriguez said they came out because none of those who were believed to be Poe’s kin turned out to be her relatives.
“We only want to help her in her (disqualification) case. We would be bothered by our conscience if she lot and we knew we could have done something but did not,” Rodriguez told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in an interview at Barangay East Valencia in Buenavista town on Guimaras Island where most of the siblings reside.
Jesus Nograles Rodriguez Jr., a retired labor judge in Bacolod City, has offered P300,000 for “solid and credible” information that could point to Poe’s real parents. The retired judge said he and his golf buddies would pool the amount.
Rodriguez claimed he was neither a supporter or a friend of Poe. He only wanted the truth to come out so the country could move forward.
In a statement, Poe thanked Rodriguez and his friends for helping find her biological parents.
“It is no secret that I have spent many years trying to find my biological parents. All foundlings want to know who their real parents are. All foundlings go through a difficult process, growing up — as a child, as a teenager and even as an adult—they wonder, they ask. I am no different. I went through the same ordeal. I have been yearning to know,” she said.
Questions on Poe’s biological parents have been used as basis in pending disqualification cases related to her presidential candidacy in next year’s elections.
Her critics have claimed that she could not prove her status as a natural-born Filipino citizen, a Constitutional requirement in running for president, because the identities of her biological parents have been unknown all these years.
But Poe has repeatedly said that determining the identities of her biological parents is secondary to their legal basis for the legality of her candidacy.
She said she has been pushing for the rights of foundlings as determined by international law and jurisprudence.
According to Junie, his family does not know if the retired judge is related to them but the reward offer has no bearing on their claim.
Junie is the eight of 12 siblings whose eldest, Victoria, is believed to be Poe’s biological mother.
He said Victoria died in 1996 at the age of about 50 due to heat stroke in Sultan Kudarat in Mindanao.
“We have this gut feeling that (Poe) was the baby who was given up for adoption by our sister,” said Teresa Rodriguez-Victoriano, Junie’s younger sister.
Poe was reportedly abandoned and later found in the baptismal font of the Jaro Cathedral in Iloilo City in 1968.
Junie and Teresa Rodriguez-Victoriano said Poe was brought by Corazon Javellana from Buenavista, Guimaras to Tessie Ledesma Valencia in Jaro District in Iloilo City who in turn gave Poe to couple Fernando Poe Jr. and Susan Roces, Poe’s adoptive parents.
Junie said their youngest sibling, Lorena Rodriguez-de Chavez, and two other daughters of Victoria have undergone DNA testing to determine blood ties to Poe.
“We would be happy if it will turn out positive but if not, it will be okay for us because we tried to help,” he said.
Victoriano said they were hurt by insinuations and talks that they only came out for money.
“We grew up with the belief that she is our niece. We could have come out when she became senator but we did not want to pull her down from where she is now because we are poor and she is better off in her position. But no one has been proven to be her true family,” she told the Philippine Daily Inquirer. (With a report from Carla P. Gomez, Inquirer Visayas). SFM