PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino III wants to remove Senator Grace Poe from the equation in next year’s presidential race so that as much as 60 percent of the votes that would have gone to her will go to the Liberal Party’s presumptive candidate, Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II, Senator Sergio Osmeña said Wednesday.
In an interview, Osmeña said he believed that if Poe does not run, 60 percent of the votes that she would have received would go to Roxas, and only 40 percent would be shared by Vice President Jejomar Binay, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and others.
Binay was the consistent top choice of Filipino voters to succeed Aquino until he was dislodged by Poe in the last presidential surveys conducted by Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia.
Duterte, who repeatedly denied he would run for president, has been touring the country on “a listening tour” on federalism.
The President’s approach to Poe was natural, Osmeña said.
“You must eliminate an opponent,” he said.
Osmeña, a campaign official during the Aquino’s run for the presidency, said the President, also national chairman of Liberal Party, would rather name Roxas as the presidential candidate and have Poe run as vice president.
“But if the President is unable to convince her to be a member of his coalition, he’s not that strong a leader,” Osmeña said.
The senator said he had no information of a meeting the President was holding with Escudero, Poe and Roxas Wednesday night.
“I appears that Aquino is weak in wooing her. Well, it’s taking him so many meetings,” Osmeña said.
Osmeña said if Poe runs for president as an independent, this means she is breaking from the administration coalition.
“This will weaken the coalition and the party. So if the President cannot convince Grace Poe, how can he convince the voters to make his own candidate win?” Osmeña said.
Osmeña said Poe would be better off serving six years as vice president before running for president.
“She’s fairly new in this game. This is not all about national politics and winning the elections. After that, the big work comes, the headache comes, [that’s] running the country,” he said.
“If you stumble around, then the whole country stumbles with you. However, she’s got the talent to run for president. So if she serves as VP for six years, in 2022, she’s a sure winner.”
Osmeña said Poe could win because “she’s perceived as being good in her legislative work and she’s personally popular.”
He also said there were no negatives about her, but if she joins forces with the LP, then all the negatives of the party will come out.
“As a matter of fact, 70 percent of the voters, based on the surveys, think that Aquino is honest but covers up for his corrupt associates,” he said.
At the same time, Osmeña said it was unlikely that Roxas would give way to Poe.
“Who will now carry the Liberal Party [if Roxas does not run]? So just for the sake of the local candidates, the LP would have to put up a presidential candidate,” he said.
