Poe’s daughter undecided
on running under party list system

THE daughter of the late actor Fernando Poe Jr. yesterday said she is still undecided about running for Congress under the party-list group Filipino for Peace, Justice and Progress Movement [FPJPM] which was formally launched yesterday morning at Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan.

Mary Grace Llamanzares-Poe said, "For the record I am inclined not to run because I have to consider whether I will be effective in Congress or being just a party member. There’s still a lot of things of consider, especially my family and my Mom. I won’t let my Mom get worried."

Poe added, however, that she is keeping her options open until March 29, the last day for filing of certificates of candidacy for local positions. "I’ll just cross the bridge when I get there. The chance of me running is 50-50," she said.

If she runs, she said she will support the same ideals espoused by her father in his run for the presidency in 2004.

Poe was candid about her disappointment in her father’s former ally, senatorial candidate Vicente "Tito" Sotto III who is running with the administration’s Team Unity. She said that among Sotto and other former oppositionists Teresa Aquino-Oreta and Edgardo Angara, who are also running for the Senate under Team Unity, it was Sotto who was closest to her family.

"He is the closest to our family and I would have wanted him to be with the opposition but it’s his decision and we respect that, though I am very disappointed but there is nothing personal," she said.

She said she did not know Angara and Oreta well to comment on their defection.

Present at the FPJPM launch were Genuine Opposition president and Makati mayor Jejomar Binay, GO senatorial candidates Francis Escudero and Aquilino Pimentel III, Marichu Maceda, San Juan mayor JV Ejercito, opposition spokesman Adel Tamano and lawyer Rufus Rodriguez.

Poe’s widow Susan Roces sent a taped message congratulating the group’s organizers while calling on them to stay true to the ideals of her husband. "The formal launching of this party-list group is a culmination of what my husband, Fernando Poe Jr. has sought and fought for even before his candidacy. Ako at ang aking pamilya ay sumusuporta sa inyong pagsisikap, and God willing kung kayo ay mahalal, inaasahan naming kayo ay magiging boses ng karamihan sa mga maliliit at walang kapangyarihan. Dalangin ko na kayo ay manalo," said Roces in her message.

Binay said FPJPM will boost GO’s campaign and GO will return the favor by campaigning for FPJPM in their sorties. "We will ask the people especially the poor to vote for the FPJPM similar to the support they extended when FPJ ran for the presidential election in 2004. Despite the resources of the administration I know in the end we will prevail for FPJ’s spirit is still with us, fighting to attain justice and equality for all," he said.

Binay belied speculations GO will just use FPJPM as a "puppet" in its campaign against the Arroyo administration. "That report has no basis and is a mere propaganda of the administration. The claim that the group is not a true party-list grouping has been debunked by the Commission on Elections which ruled after two years on the FPJPM’s validity as a party-list group," he said.