Grace, Chiz proclaim Team Galing at Puso

MANILA, Philippines - It’s a mix of old and new for the senatorial slate of Senators Grace Poe and Francis Escudero, which they have dubbed as the Team Galing at Puso (Team GP).

The final slate was presented to the public at the Club Filipino in San Juan City yesterday where all but one of the 12-member lineup were present.

As described by Team GP’s campaign manager, Cebu Rep. Joseph “Ace” Durano, the lineup is composed of old politicians and personalities who represent a broad sector of society.

Poe said that the senatorial candidates were chosen based on their competence, intelligence, and desire to serve the people as elected representatives in the Senate.

A total of seven candidates are exclusively with Team GP: Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Neri Colmenares, Valenzuela City Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian, lawyer Lorna Kapunan, actor Edu Manzano, Manila City Vice Mayor Isko Moreno, ACT-CIS party-list Rep. Samuel Pagdilao and Pasig City Rep. Roman Romulo.

The other five: former senators Richard Gordon and Juan Miguel Zubiri, overseas Filipino workers (OFW) advocate Susan Ople, and Senators Vicente Sotto III and Ralph Recto are considered as guest candidates since they are also part of the senatorial slates of other parties.

Sotto, Gordon, Zubiri and Ople are part of the senatorial slate of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) of Vice President Jejomar Binay while Recto is part of the Liberal Party.

Ople and Moreno are also candidates of Senators Miriam Defensor Santiago and Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Sotto said that he is an official candidate of Team GP and a guest candidate of UNA.

He said that he would endorse both Poe and Escudero but admitted that he could not avoid also supporting Sen. Gregorio Honasan, the running-mate of Binay.

Gordon said that he was invited to join the senatorial slate of Poe and Escudero after he was drafted by UNA.

He said that the Vice President asked him to run for senator and to join the UNA slate. At the time, he said that he was considering either another bid for the presidency or a return to the Senate.

Gordon said that he informed the two sides that he would not be endorsing any presidential candidate.

“I will just assist whoever among the two wins. They did not ask me for anything. I am comfortable with either group,” Gordon said.

“I’m just going to do what I can. Win, win for the people and when I win, I will work for the people and if the president and vice president are doing work for the people, I will be their ally. If they’re not, I will be their critic. But it’s time to be united,” he added.

Zubiri said that he was an independent candidate adopted by different groups, including that of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, Poe and UNA.

“They probably saw my accomplishments. There is still a lot that I want to do for our nation,” he said.

Zubiri, who was the subject of an electoral protest filed by Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III in relation to the 2007 senatorial elections, resigned three years into his term, just before the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) came out with a ruling in favor of Pimentel.

He said that he has moved on and has in fact reconciled with Pimentel.

“I would like to think that my resignation was a way to show that my integrity is untarnished. Let us move forward for this country. If we continue to quarrel over things that happened in the past, then our country will not move forward,” Zubiri said.

Recto was not present during the launch of Team GP yesterday, but his son Ryan Christian was there to represent him.

Manzano, a former vice mayor of Makati City and chairman of the Optical Media Board, clarified that his inclusion in Team GP slate was not at the expense of former senator Panfilo Lacson.

Earlier this week, Lacson said that he was asked to give way to Manzano as a member of the senatorial slate of Poe and Escudero.

Manzano said that this was not true because he was invited to be part of the senatorial slate some time ago.

“I believe that the former senator was misinformed. I knew quite a while back that I was part of the team,” Manzano said.

He recalled that when he was invited to join the team, there were still two slots available.

Poe said it was never their intention to drop Lacson from the lineup, adding that the former senator has a big chance of making a successful comeback even if he is not part of the Poe-Escudero slate.

Kapunan is a high-profile lawyer, who has handled cases involving celebrities and other big clients. She filed her candidacy under Aksyon Demokratiko, the political party founded by the late senator Raul Roco.

Pagdilao, a retired officer of the Philippine National Police, was credited as being one of the founding fathers of the elite Special Action Force.

Ople is the daughter of the late senator Blas Ople and is an advocate of labor and OFWs.

No secret alliance

During yesterday’s program, Escudero went to the stage to deny rumors that he is striking a secret alliance with Binay after they were spotted eating together in a restaurant in Davao City over the weekend.

“My president has no ‘B.’ My president has ‘G’ and ‘P.’ She has innate wisdom and her heart is in the right place,” Escudero said, referring to Poe.

Still the frontrunner

Meanwhile, Poe continued to widen her lead as a presidential candidate based on a recent survey conducted by the Magdalo Group.

The survey was conducted from Oct. 20 to 22,  after the filing of the certificates of candidacy (COC) of national candidates.

In the survey, Poe received 42.8 percent of the votes of the respondents, followed by Binay with 26.6 percent, Manuel Roxas II with 17.4 percent and Santiago with 10.7 percent.

The survey also included OFW party-list Rep. Roy Señeres and former Iloilo congressman Augusto Syjuco Jr., who got 0.2 percent each.

In the September survey of the Magdalo, Poe got 30 percent.

According to the survey, Poe topped almost all regions of the country, except for the Cordillera Administrative Region and Region 2 where Binay got more votes.

For the vice presidential race, the Magdalo survey showed Escudero in the lead with 37 percent of the votes of respondents.

Marcos ranked second with 24 percent, followed by Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano and the Magdalo’s own Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, who were tied for third place with 11 percent.

Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo was next with nine percent and Sen. Gregorio Honasan with seven percent.

“We have expected that there would be substantial changes in the candidates’ ratings and rankings compared to our previous surveys as the people are now having a clearer idea who will be running in the upcoming elections,” Magdalo party-list Rep. Ashley Acedillo said.

SET grants Poe plea

In a related development, the SET has given Poe more time to submit results of DNA testing on her probable biological family.

The tribunal tasked to resolve the disqualification case seeking to oust Poe from the Senate has granted her camp’s request for extension of the deadline for the submission of results, originally set last Oct.21.

Lawyer Irene Guevarra, spokesperson for the SET, said a resolution approved by the nine-member tribunal last Tuesday has allowed the two-week extension sought by Poe.

Guevarra said the senator is now given until Nov. 5 to submit the results.

“The motion was granted by the executive committee of the tribunal,” she confirmed in a text message.

She said the resolution was served on Poe’s counsel last Wednesday and to the camp of petitioner Rizalito David yesterday.

Poe’s camp revealed earlier that she would undergo DNA testing for possible matches to prove that either of her biological parents is a Filipino citizen.

They said this would debunk the disqualification case filed before the SET by David in connection with Poe’s election in the 2013 senatorial race.

Poe, the frontrunner in the presidential election next year, herself confirmed last month that she underwent a DNA test to prove that she was a Filipino.

She said she had been trying for years to find out who her biological parents were even though they chose to abandon her.

In June, Poe went to Iloilo and met with family friends whom, she said, gave her more information about the possible identify of her biological parents.

She was told about stories that her biological father was one Edgardo Militar, a brother-in-law of Sayong Militar who was supposed to have

found her inside the cathedral nearly five decades ago.

Militar was in fact the signatory in her foundling certificate, indicating he was the one who found her in the church.

Poe said Militar had died but her children have expressed their willingness to help her determine whether they are related.

SET chairman and Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio welcomed the DNA testing, saying that would give a “conclusive presumption of filiation.”

During oral argument, Carpio commented that Poe – being a foundling – is not a natural-born citizen qualified for electoral post unless she proves that her biological parents are Filipinos.

The same question on Poe’s citizenship has been raised in recent disqualification petitions filed before the Commission on Elections after her filing of COC for the presidency.

Records show that Poe got married to Teodoro Misael Daniel “Neil” Llamanzares on July 27, 1991. Two days later, they went to the US

together and decided to start a family there.

On Oct. 18, 2001, or about 10 years later, she became a naturalized US citizen.

After her father, the late movie actor Fernando Poe Jr., died in December 2004, she and her family decided to return to the Philippines for good sometime in the first quarter of 2005 to be with her mother, veteran actress Susan Roces, who was grieving at the time.

In July 2006, Poe took her oath of allegiance to the Philippines. Her reacquisition of natural-born Philippine citizenship was recognized by

the Bureau of Immigration that same month. She and her children then became dual citizens.

Poe renounced her American citizenship on Oct. 20, 2010, a day before she took her oath of office as chairperson of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB).

Poe became purely Filipino since then. – With Edu Punay, Celso Amo