Poe on meeting Duterte after 2016 polls: Happy, comfortable

Senator Grace Poe. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES

Almost a year after they ran against each other in the May 2016 presidential race, President Rodrigo Duterte and Senator Grace Poe met and talked for the first time at a dinner in Malacañang Tuesday night.

Poe, in an interview at the Senate on Wednesday, described their meeting as “happy, “light” and “comfortable.”

The senator said she and the President have known each other long before the election as she has been going to Davao, the President’s home province, since 2010.

Asked if all is well between her and the President, Poe said: “Dapat naman (It should be). I think naman I’ve proven to be a principled ally of whoever has the right intentions for the country.”

During the dinner, she recalled thanking Duterte for calling her a “good person.”

“Ang sinabi ko lang sa kanya (I told him), ‘Thank you, Mr. President for calling me a good person’ and then he said, ‘Mabait ka naman talaga.’ Sabi ko minsan (You really are a good person. I said sometimes)…” said the senator.

She dismissed any insinuations that Duterte used the occasion to pressure them to vote on certain measures.

“Wala, wala namang pinakiusap (No, there was no request). In fact, ‘yung sinasabing there’s pressure to vote on certain measures,wala naman akong narinig na ganun (I didn’t hear anything of that sort),” Poe said.

Besides, she said, senators have an individual stand on certain issues, especially on controversial bills.

Poe said they did not also discuss during the dinner about the alleged destabilization plots against the administration. JE