Poe leads Partido Galing at Puso rally in Jaro, Iloilo

ILOILO – Senator Grace Poe’s Partido Galing at Puso held a political rally on Tuesday just across the Jaro Church here where she was supposedly found abandoned as an infant.

The rally, which started at 5:30 p.m., was attended by Poe’s adoptive mother, veteran actress Susan Roces, who earlier made a tour at the La Paz Public Market and Iloilo Central Market.

Before going to the rally, Poe quietly entered the Jaro Church around 6 p.m. to pray.

Most of the people waiting for Poe’s arrival, including some family members of Edgardo Militar, who allegedly found her, were clueless that she was already inside the church.

“Tapos na akong magdasal,” Poe told reporters, who rushed inside the church.

On her way out, the senator shook the hands, and hugged some of the churchgoers who approached her.

Lorena Rodriguez-Dechavez, who had approached Poe and introduced herself as the senator’s possible aunt, was also among those who waited for her.

Dechavez and some of her family members even undertook DNA tests but yielded negative results.

“Thank you for what you did,” Poe told Dechavez when she saw her.

After her quick visit at the church, Poe walked across the Jaro Plaza for the rally of her team attended by thousands of people.

She was joined there by her running mate, Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero, and nine of their senatorial bets.

Among the senatorial bets who spoke at the rally were reelectionist Senator Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, former Senator Richard Gordon, Congressmen Neri Colmenares, Samuel Pagdilao and Sherwin Gatchalian, actor Edu Manzano, Manila Vice Mayor Isko Moreno, lawyer Lorna Kapunan, and migrant workers’ advocate Susan “Toots” Ople.