Poe: Duterte camp’s threat doesn’t scare me

Senator Grace Poe.
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/LYN RILLON

CALACA, Batangas — Presidential bet Senator Grace Poe said she is not afraid by the reported plan of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s camp to “unmask” her, noting the many accusations that had already been hurled at her.

“E ano ba ang i-a-unmask, kung ano-ano na rin ang lumabas? Para sa akin naman, bawat tapon ng isyu, pagkakataon na ring magpaliwanag sa ating mga kababayan.” Poe said in an interview here on Friday.

(What else can they unmask when so many issues have already come up? For me, every issue thrown my way is an opportunity to explain to the public.)

READ: Poe camp to Duterte: There is nothing to ‘unmask’

“Ako naman ay hindi natatakot kung para ano pa man ‘yan. Lahat naman kaming mga kandidato ay nakatutok talaga sa isa’t isa at tinitingnan kung makatotohanan ba ang sinasabi namin o hindi,” she said.

(I am not scared as to what purpose it will serve. All of us candidates are watching each other’s moves and verifying each other’s statements.)

Found abandoned in a church in Iloilo when she was a baby, Poe’s Filipino citizenship was questioned and was even used by her detractors to stop her presidential bid in May.

READ: It’s final: SC says Poe can run

Her loyalty to the country is also being questioned after she abandoned her Filipino citizenship and became a US citizen. She reacquired her original status when she returned to the Philippines and was appointed chair of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) in 2010.

Poe’s spokesman, Valenzuela Mayor Representative Rex Gatchalian, earlier pointed out that there was nothing to unmask about her since she has been forthright with the details of her life from day one.

“She has been transparent and honest with the facts of her life even about her childhood. In fact, her trustworthiness is one of the virtues Filipinos saw last elections when they elected her number 1 in the Senate race,” Gatchalian said in a statement Thursday.

“We will let them chart the course of their campaign as they wish, but our campaign will focus on laying down the details of Senator Poe’s platform of governance: ‘Gobyernong may Puso (a government with a heart),” the spokesman added.