Osmeña to Poe: No, thank you

Sen. Serge Osmeña III. NOY MORCOSO III/INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

SEN. SERGIO “Serge”  Osmeña III has no plan of running under the slate of a Poe-Escudero ticket and would rather join Rodrigo Duterte should the Davao City mayor decide to run for President.

Osmeña told reporters Thursday after filing his candidacy for reelection that he had not been invited to join the campaign of Senators Grace Poe and Francis Escudero. But even if asked, he said he would turn down the offer.

“I have to find a gentle way to say no, thank you,” he said in a text message to reporters.

But Duterte will get his nod, he said. In earlier interviews, the senator said the tough-talking mayor was an attractive candidate because he had shown political will.

Sen. Ralph Recto, also rumored to be one of those to be adopted in the Poe-Escudero slate, said he had no knowledge of such a plan, but he would not reject it.

But he stressed that he was with the Liberal Party and he was supporting its standard-bearer, Mar Roxas, and his running mate, Leni Robredo.

If Poe includes him in her senatorial lineup, he would be thankful, Recto said. “I know them. They know me. We have been working together at the Senate and share many similar advocacies,” he said in a text message to reporters.

An Inquirer source said other names mentioned in Poe’s senatorial slate were Sen. Vicente Sotto III, Valenzuela Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian, Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares, Pasig Rep. Roman Romulo, former lawmaker Juan Miguel Zubiri, lawyer Lorna Kapunan, Manila Vice Mayor Isko Moreno, actor Edu Manzano, former Sen. Panfilo Lacson, Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, former Sen. Richard Gordon, and Amina Rasul-Bernardo, director of the Philippine Council on Islam and Democracy.

Of these names, only Colmenares has received the categorical endorsement of Poe and Escudero.

Sotto and Romulo have declared their support for Poe, while Zubiri has said that he would be running as a guest candidate under Poe’s slate. Leila B. Salaverria