Text by ELLEN TORDESILLAS
WRITER and political commentator Teddy Locsin Jr., summarizing the campaign for the 2016 elections, said of Grace Poe, the presidential candidate of Partido Galing at Puso:
“To Grace, who has had to mature in such terrible adversity; and yet struggled without losing an ounce of the grace that is her name. I apologize on behalf of the legal profession which disgraced itself by putting a foundling on trial for the identity and nationality of the parents she couldn’t, by the definition of a foundling, know. I am proud to call you my niece, as I have always been proud to call your mother my cousin. I wish I had met you earlier and we had talked longer.”
Responding to a popular clamor to run for the highest position in the country after topping the senatorial race in 2013, Poe’s presidential bid was immediately sabotaged by detractors with disqualification suits on questions about her citizenship and residency.
She survived the legal battle but not without losing some of her campaign momentum.
At the homestretch of the campaign, Poe said she can look back to the everything that happened the past months and say with a clear conscience that she conducted a clean and fair campaign in the midst of malicious propaganda. She stuck to issues and focused on informing the people about her program of government. She said:
“Mapayapa na ako e. Kasi, alam mo, ang laban na ito ay hindi naman para sa aking sarili. Naihahayag ko ang mga isyu sa ating mga kababayan. Ipinaglaban ko sila maski man lang sa aking plataporma. Masaya ako kasi kahit paano nagawa ko ang nararapat. Hindi ako nanira ng kapwa. Maayos ang ating kampanya.”
VERA Files compiled some of the scenes from her campaign with photos from her media bureau.
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