Sen. Grace Poe spurned over the weekend the ruling Liberal Party’s last-ditch attempt to use the patriotic card to place on her the burden of avoiding a “Duterte dictatorship” by giving way to LP standard-bearer Manuel A. Roxas II.
Poe did not directly identify Davao Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte and her other rivals in the May 9 presidential derby, but explained if she agrees to withdraw from the race, that will leave voters with a limited range of flawed choices: the inept and insensitive, the corrupt and the executioner.
This developed as vice-presidential bet Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. bared a possible “plan b” of the Aquino administration to ensure victory of LP vice-presidential bet Ma. Leonor Robredo at all cost so that should Durterte become president, they can impeach him and still have an LP president (Robredo) take his place.
Marcos, thus, warned people to guard their votes, adding that he is confident that in a fair and honest election, he will win as vice president even though the latest surveys showed him and Robredo in a very tight race.
Speaking to reporters, Poe affirmed she was not backing out of the race but assured her willingness to talk “anytime” to Roxas, who earlier aired a public appeal for “unity” in seeking a meeting with her to discuss a last-minute alliance in a bid to foil an LP-dreaded Duterte victory.
“Pwede naman kaming mag-usap anytime. Pero pangungunahan ko na…kung iniisip nila ay pag-uusap sa pag atras, ako ay hindi aatras,” Poe said.
In an interview with CNN-Philippines, President Aquino explained the Palace tack in endorsing “unity talks” between rival presidential aspirants to thwart a “Duterte dictatorship.”
The President pointed out the latest surveys showing the Davao mayor a enjoying a 30-percent voter support in his presidential bid means that Duterte “does not have the rest of the 70 percent, and in our democratic system, it is the majority that decides for everybody.”
Aquino added: “Therefore, it behooves everybody to try and get together and ensure that instead of thinking about what shall we do if everything he [Duterte] says is exactly what he intends to do, why don’t we remove that problem or that threat or that insecurity by uniting the 70 and defeating the 30.”
Asked by CNN-Philippines’s Pia Hontiveros on Friday to clarify if the 70 percent he was referring to included Vice President Jejomar C. Binay, Secretary Manuel A. Roxas II and Sen. Grace Poe, who are also seeking the presidency, Mr. Aquino replied in the affirmative.
“Well, all three of them. Or probably even Senator Santiago; but the whole point is, any two of them unites, if it’s Mar and Grace that unite, we get more than 40 percent, [it] defeats the 30 percent,” Aquino explained, saying he was aiming “to get all these different voices from so many sectors together and, in that sense, perhaps, help our candidates get together and have that united front.”
Aquino confirmed discussing the plan first with Roxas, followed by “a little text exchange” with Poe but the President admitted both efforts were not “conclusive.”
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HOW DARE YOU POE MAKING A FOOL OUT OF THE FILIPINO PEOPLE!The thestandard.com.ph reports: After denying it for five months, President
Benigno Aquino III finally admitted that Grace Poe, an “independent candidate” for president, is actually the surrogate presidential bet
of Aquino’s Liberal Party.
I retract all my praises for Grace Poe! I am more convinced now that she was already a conspirator in Malacañang’s sinister pre-election
plot to field another presidential bet in her person, and use her in LP’s plan B against Duterte. GRACE POE, NILOKO MO LANG PALA ANG
BUONG PILIPINAS. TRAYDOR KA RIN PALA. DRAMA LANG PALA ANG LAHAT. GO BACK TO YOUR MOTHER U.S.A.!