Poe: I’m not involved in vote-buying activities

Sen. Grace Poe. INQUIRER PHOTO

CAVITE—Presidential aspirant Sen. Grace Poe has strongly denied involvement in any vote buying activity, saying she will not do anything that would tarnish her name.

“First of all, there’s no vote buying; I’ve never been involved in those activities. Especially now, will I smear my name with those kinds of activities when I’ve been against cheating since 2004?” Poe said on Tuesday in an interview after holding a motorcade in the province.

Her father, the late action star Fernando Poe Jr., ran but lost to now detained Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo during the 2004 presidential race, which is said to have been marred by massive fraud.

“First of all, I’m not a respondent. He’s just saying that,” the senator said, referring to senatorial candidate Greco Belgica, who had filed a complaint at the Commission on Elections seeking an investigation into alleged vote-buying activities by the Liberal Party and its standard-bearer, former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas.

While Poe was not part of the complaint, Belgica was quoted in a report as saying that he would also seek the same probe of her.

“Be careful because I take good care of my reputation. And they accuse me of doing something like that?” she said. “Wala akong ginagawang ganyan (I’m not involved in such things).”

The senator added: “Whoever is saying that those activities are being done for me, that is not true because first of all, I don’t have the money for such things.”

Poe’s running mate, Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero, immediately defended her, saying she was being dragged into the issue in favor of another candidate who was probably behind Belgica.

“He (Belgica) is making it up and lying through his teeth … (The) petition does not even mention Sen. Grace. Only Mar and LP,” Escudero said in a text message.

“GP (Poe’s initials) was not even mentioned in his actual petition. He only mentioned her in his interview. Probably he is supporting someone else for president. His own petition contradicted his own statements,” he said. RC/rga

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