Senator Grace Poe.
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
BUENAVISTA, Guimaras – Paquito Montanez was struck by lightning when he was 23 years old while on a boat in the middle of the sea in 1975.
Could he be the father of Sen. Grace Poe who was born in 1968 when Paquito was 17? Or is it Paquito’s father, Francisco?
Members of the Montanez family in this town are seeking answers even as they are also putting their family’s name on the line.
“At first I felt ashamed to come out but it will also be good for our family if the questions are answered,” Gregorio Montanez told the INQUIRER.
He said they had accepted the possibility that his father, or elder brother, could have impregnated Victoria Rodriguez, who is believed to be Poe’s biological mother.
“But I do not know the truth. Only the (DNA) tests will tell,” said Gregorio, 58, the sixth of eight siblings.
The skeletal remains of Victoria and the two men were exhumed last week at a public cemetery in East Valencia village to gather samples for DNA testing as part of efforts to determine the identity of Poe’s biological parents.
Poe has been disqualified by the Commission on Elections from the presidential race this May elections on issues of citizenship and residency requirements.
The poll body has ruled that Poe could not prove she is a natural-born citizen as she is a foundling.
The senator was abandoned and found in the baptismal font of the Jaro Cathedral in Iloilo City in 1968, according to popular accounts.
The Rodriguez family believed Poe was the second of four daughters of Victoria who was brought to Iloilo City and later adopted by celebrity couple Fernando Poe Jr. and Susan Roces.
Leopoldo Montanez, elder brother of Gregorio, earlier said it was unlikely that their father could have sired Poe as he was already old at that time.
When the INQUIRER spoke with him on Monday, he said Francisco was 85 years old when he died in 2011. But he admitted he has poor memory.
In a separate interview, Gregorio said their father was 84 when he died about 10 to 15 years ago.
This would place Francisco’s age between 42 and 52 years old when Poe was born.
The Montanez siblings said it was only now that the issue was raised about the paternity of Victoria’s second daughter believed to be Poe.
“I was a young boy then and we were not allowed to be part of discussions of adults,” said Gregorio.
Leopoldo said the two families were close since their houses were only about 150 meters apart in Barangay East Valencia.
Leopoldo, who is married to a younger sister of Victoria, said Victoria often visited the Montanez house.
Paquito was also a frequent visitor of Victoria’s family.
Guimaras Vice Gov. Vicente de Asis, a Poe supporter who is running for representative of the province’s lone congressional district, said there was a possibility that one of the Montanez men was the biological father of Poe.
But he said the possibility that Poe was a daughter of Victoria was “greater.”
De Asis cited a photograph taken during the baptism of Poe at the Jaro Cathedral in Iloilo City where another character in the unfolding drama on the search for Poe’s parents, Corazon Javellana, was also present.
Javellana, who also hails from East Valencia, is believed to have brought the second daughter of Victoria, believed to be Poe, to Iloilo City when the baby was just a few days old.
She later told the Rodriguez family that the baby was in good hands and living in a big house of an affluent family.
At one time, Javellana had told Victoria’s mother, Jovita, that the child was with Susan Roces, according to Victoria’s younger brother, Junie, in an earlier interview.
Gregorio, who was among the three Montanez siblings who had DNA samples taken, said they hope the tests would put to rest the questions and suspicions on Poe’s citizenship.
Samples were also taken from six members of the Rodriguez family aside from those earlier taken from Victoria’s sister, Lorena Dechavez, and Victoria’s two surviving daughters–Mayin, 40, and Magdalena, 38.
Victoria’s eldest child, Aida, earlier died of an illness.
Results of the tests are expected this month.
“If it’s true (that Poe is their relative), then we would also be happy because she was taken care of. If the tests are negative, that’s it,” said Gregorio.