If she isn’t Filipino, how did she get here?

IF SHE isn’t Filipino, how did Sen. Grace Poe land in the Philippines?

This was the question posed by actress Susan Roces to critics doubting the citizenship of her adopted daughter to derail her presidential bid, much like what they did to her husband, the late Fernando Poe Jr., in 2004.

Roces, 74, visited La Paz and Central public markets in Iloilo City Tuesday as part of Poe’s campaign sortie in the city where she was left as a newborn in 1968.

In between sipping La Paz ‘batchoy’ at a market café, Roces said: “I can’t understand why they are saying my child is not a Filipino. (If she isn’t a Filipino), how did she land here?”

Without any proof that both or either of Poe’s biological parents are Filipinos, her critics have used the issue as basis to seek her disqualification on the grounds that she could not prove that she is a natural-born Filipino as required of presidential candidates under the Constitution.

Roces admitted to getting hurt by the “nasty” accusations against her daughter but she said she had learned to accept these as part of God’s plan.

“I guess [the disqualification cases] are part of politics. This also happened to my husband but it was a different case. I leave it all to the Lord’s will,” Roces said.

In a separate press conference in Iloilo City, Poe said she was grateful to the Militar and Rodriguez families for volunteering to help her find a match for her DNA. She said that she hoped that her real parents were as decent and kind as these families.

Rumors

Roces also spoke out on rumors that Poe was a love child of Roces’ sister, Rosemarie Sonora, and former President Ferdinand Marcos.

“Why would I deny if she (Poe) was indeed the daughter of my sister? I was with my sister, day and night during those days. I never saw her pregnant in 1968, the year I got married,” Roces said.

ROSEMARIE SONORA; SUSAN ROCES

Poe said her aunt had been a visible figure the year she was born.

“You can dig up from the Vera Perez archives of Sampaguita (Pictures) and check the Pepito and Rosemarie show, which was a weekly and you can see if she was really carrying a baby then,” she said.

Poe said she decided to cap her Iloilo sortie with an evening rally in front of Jaro Church. “This is symbolic because this is where I was found. Most of all, this is a beautiful and historic plaza for the people of Jaro and I want to show I belong with them.”

Poe said she and her mom would retrace their heritage in the campaign sorties starting with her father’s roots in Pangasinan province to Iloilo and Bacolod City, Negros Occidental province, where Roces grew up.