Palace denies Aquino-Poe meeting: President committed to Roxas’ bid

Senator Grace Poe and President Benigno Aquino III. INQUIRER and AP FILE PHOTO

Malacañang on Tuesday denied claims that President Benigno Aquino III privately met with presidential aspirant Sen. Grace Poe allegedly to explore how to “help each other” in the upcoming May polls.

Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma said Aquino was “fully committed” to the candidacy of Liberal Party standard-bearer Mar Roxas, whom the President had endorsed as his preferred successor.

“President Aquino is fully committed to the candidacy of Sec. Roxas. The allegation is untrue,” Coloma said.

Coloma was reacting to the statement of former Sen. Francisco “Kit” Tatad, who claimed that Poe met with Aquino at Bahay Pangarap, the President’s official residence in Malacañang, about a week before the Supreme Court denied with finality all motions for reconsideration seeking to reverse its March 8 ruling allowing Poe’s presidential bid.

READ: Tatad bares Poe-Aquino meeting at Palace

Tatad, one of the petitioners against Poe’s candidacy, said he received information that Aquino had given Roxas until April 25 to improve his numbers, or the administration machinery will rally behind the first-term senator.

Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda earlier said he wished Tatad a “long career in fiction writing.”

Roxas was trailing Poe in preference surveys at third to fourth place.

The administration had wooed Poe to be Roxas’ running mate in the elections, but Poe declared her own presidential bid and decided to run against the President’s candidate.

Aquino appointed Poe as chair of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board in 2010. JE