Sen. Grace Poe will listen to the view of President Aquino and not of the Liberal Party (LP).

“When I ran in 2013, I joined that coalition and President Aquino was my guide. If ever I should make a decision and they believe that I am worthy of their support, the most important is the view of the President and not of just a party,” Poe said in an interview with Radyo Inquirer dzIQ 990AM.

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Poe made the statement amid declarations from a group of LP members that they would not have an “outsider” and a candidate with no experience for their standard-bearer in 2016.

She said she had learned to deal with criticisms, specifically those coming from the President’s allies in the LP.

Poe said it was only natural for LP members to give priority to somebody from their own party.

“Even if he is a friend, I cannot read everything that is on the mind of the President. He is honest, not only with me but also with all his allies. He does not impose himself. He has long been telling me that this will not be easy,” she said.

Aquino’s endorsement

In an interview with dzBB, Poe said that while she considered the President’s endorsement a big deal, running for higher office was strictly a personal choice.

She and Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero clarified what they meant in their statements to reporters in Koronadal City, South Cotabato province, on Saturday, as the Inquirer’s headline on Sunday, “P-Noy not key to running,” might have made them look disrespectful toward the President.

“I think the President’s endorsement is a big thing,” Poe said. She added that she believed the President was sincere.

But even if “someone you look up to and respect endorses [your] candidacy, it [is] still up to [you to decide whether to run],” she said.

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Speaking on the same radio program, Escudero said the Inquirer headline was not the right interpretation of their statements.

Escudero said they were asked by reporters if they had decided to run for higher office and whether they would run if they did not get the President’s endorsement.

He said they stated that their decision to run was separate from endorsement “because the decision to run [would] come first.”

“[I]f in our view we would not be able to do something for the country, even if someone endorses us, we will not run for office. But if we think we would be able to do something and even without an endorsement, we would still try,” he said.

And for the nth time, Escudero said he and Poe had not yet decided whether to run.

He said it was the President who made the timetable for his announcement of his chosen presidential candidate—after his final address to a joint session of Congress on July 27.

But he said it was difficult to decide whether to run because he and Poe did not belong to a party and so they had no political machinery.

Both Poe and Escudero are independents.

Poe said, however, that she had started to think about running, including whether she could handle the “fight,” given the difficulties her late father, the late movie actor Fernando Poe Jr., went through when he ran for President against Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2004.

She said deciding whether to run was not easy, as there were many things to consider.

For one thing, she said she wanted to be “careful about the memory of my father and of course the work I have been doing in the Senate.”

“I don’t want to lose these for a decision that is wrong,” she said, speaking in Filipino. “But what is important to me … . I admit I am thinking of how I could help people. And will I be able to cope with this because it was not easy for my father in 2004.”

FPJ, as Poe’s father was known, was derided by Arroyo’s allies as a mere movie actor with little education. As his mother was American, they questioned his citizenship.

He won the challenge to his citizenship, but lost the election to Arroyo. He brought an electoral protest, but died from a stroke seven months after his defeat.

Poe underscored the importance of being able to handle such challenges.

She said she was praying for strength and that, should she decide she could help better the people’s lives, she would try to be courageous.

“But for now, what’s important is what I can do to help. That’s what I’m trying to determine (how to help) in case this challenge happens,” she said.

Asked whether her mother, movie actress Susan Roces, would support her if she decided to run for higher office, Poe said she had talked to her and her mother had told her that she would support whatever decision she would make.

Poe said her husband and children would also support whatever decision she would make, but added “we are still not there.”

Both Poe and Escudero made it clear that President Aquino, during their meeting in Malacañang on Wednesday, did not ask Poe to be the running mate of Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, the presumptive presidential candidate of the ruling LP.

Poe is the new front-runner in the voter preference polls for next year’s presidential election, having overtaken Vice President Jejomar Binay.

Roxas is doing poorly in the polls, placing third or fourth, and it is believed that President Aquino is trying to get Poe to run as Roxas’ Vice President to improve the interior secretary’s chances of winning the presidential race.

Escudero said such talk was just speculation. He said Aquino made no offers and that he and Poe were not lying about it.

He said he and Poe went to South Cotabato because, like Las Piñas Rep. Mark Villar, they were invited to a festival in the province by local officials.

Poe made it clear that during their meeting with President Aquino, there was no talk about their plans and that Aquino did not ask them whether they had decided to run.

She said she and Escudero were at the meeting because Escudero was topping the vice-presidential polls and both of them did not have political parties.

“But we are not making any demands on the President but only suggestions because the final decision…will be made by the President,” Poe said.

She said that when the President suggested earlier that she and Roxas go around together, she suggested that Escudero go with them.

But the proposal fell through, she said, because there was not much time to prepare. It was hard to organize and possibly, there was some “misinterpretation” here, she said.

And that was why the decision was for them all to meet again with the President sometime this week, she said.

The meeting had yet to be confirmed, though, she said.–Christine O. Avendaño

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