SENATOR Grace Poe used to be a darling, not only in the entertainment world which saw her being raised by her adoptive parents movie icons, Fernando Poe Jr. and Susan Roces. She was also very much liked in politics, especially after she topped the senatorial race in 2010. In fact, suddenly, many politicians wanted to be associated with her because of her “star power”.
However, with her meteoric rise in approval ratings, those who used to like her in politics suddenly seem to categorize her as a “problem” that needs to be addressed or she may end up winning what these politicians have been dreaming about: to be the next Vice President, or, even the next President of the Philippines.
After news broke that the administration’s Liberal Party has been wooing her to be in the ticket with Secretary Mar Roxas in 2016, there have been more news articles, blogs, and opinion pieces talking about how new and inexperienced she is in politics, and that she needs more time to learn if she is to aspire to be President.
The bills that she has authored, how she has been handling herself as a new Senator have also been put in the spotlight, trying to see if she is indeed “Presidential” as the polls are now suggesting her to be.
Even the two archrivals in politics — VP Jejomar Binay and Sec. Mar Roxas — who were quoted in the past as being open to inviting her to be their running mate as Vice President, are reportedly preparing to raise the question whether she is a natural-born Filipino, if she decides to run for president. Poe, after all, was just adopted by FPJ and Susan Roces. Who could be her real parents and would this disqualify her to chances to run for President?
And the old adage goes — in politics there are no permanent friends nor permanent enemies, just permanent interest. FPJ’s best friend former President and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada said in an interview that while Poe is the daughter of his friend Ronnie Poe, he would not endorse nor help Grace Poe if she runs for President under the Administration’s party, primarily because Erap is now with the opposition.
As May 2016 draws closer, more scrutiny of Poe’s qualifications, character, vision, and platform will surely surface. And that is good news. After all, this is what we all need to do — evaluate every candidate vying for public office.
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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
