People ‘reading too much’ on Poe-Escudero sortie; Roxas silent

Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

People are “reading too much” into the visit of Senators Grace Poe and Francis Escudero to South Cotabato on Saturday, according to Budget Secretary Florencio Abad.

Interior Secretary Mar Roxas is silent about the first public appearance together of the two senators and that, according to a political analyst, is “ominous.”

“Some people are reading too much into a single sortie. There are more substantive bases upon which such important decision as endorsing the next President will be and should be based,” Abad told the Inquirer in a text message.

Poe and Escudero joined the T’nalak Festival in Koronadal City on the invitation of Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) officials.

READ: Poe, Escudero on the road: Powerful 3rd Force shaping up

The outing fueled speculation that Poe has decided to run for President with Escudero as her Vice President despite accepting President Benigno Aquino III’s invitations for them to meet to discuss the 2016 elections.

The President has not articulated it, but many believe he called the meetings to convince Poe, the new front-runner in the polls in the presidential election, to slide down to Vice President and be the running mate of Roxas, the presumptive standard-bearer of the ruling Liberal Party (LP).

“Chiz and Grace realize the power of their popularity and the public support so they are maximizing it. They are using these to put pressure on the President to anoint them. They realize that they control a lot of things and they control the terms of reference at this point,” political analyst Prospero de Vera said in an interview on Saturday.

Poe and Escudero were quoted as saying that while the endorsement of President Aquino would be “welcome,” it would not be the main factor in their decision whether to run. They said the decision to run would still be a personal one for them.

“If the primary consideration in this coming elections is the continuity of the transformation process that has benefited our people in the past five years, I believe that President Aquino has a critical role to play in helping the country transition to the next administration,” Abad said.

“But that assessment depends on the acknowledgment of the gains made in the past five years, the role of President Aquino in the process, and how these gains and President Aquino can help shape the 2016 elections,” Abad added.

What is most telling for De Vera is the silence of Roxas in the past few days, especially after the dinner hosted by the President for him, Poe, Escudero, and Abad on Wednesday.

“The situation is becoming harder and harder for Mar because while all this is going on, Mar is extremely silent and that is ominous,” De Vera said.

He said Roxas was not imposing himself on the public, unlike how former House Speaker Jose de Venecia projected himself as a presidential candidate despite his low ratings in voter preference polls in 1998.