FOR the first time, the camp of Liberal Party standard bearer Manuel Roxas II on Tuesday attacked Senator Grace Poe directly for her “lean” credentials for the presidency.
“If you look at it from the perspective of credentials, she really has the leanest resume,” Team Daang Matuwid spokesman and Akbayan Rep. Ibarra Gutierrez told the ANC channel.
“She served very, very briefly as MTRCB [Movie and Television Review and Classification Board] Chairperson and haven’t completed yet her first term as a senator.”
Gutierrez made his statement even as Roxas appealed to the businessmen attending a forum in Pasay City on Tuesday to pick the right presidential candidate.
Speaking to forum moderator Coco Alcuaz of the International Business Times, Roxas said: “I only heard questions from you. Now what about the audience?
“To whom would you entrust your businesses? This is what we are offering in the straight path,” Roxas said.
He reiterated the need to continue the gains that he claimed the country had experienced under the straight path.
“For the first time in generations, we have a chance to put the Philippines back where it ought to be, where it was in the time of the 50s and 60s: the Philippines which was looked up upon as the center of growth and development and modernity in Asia,” Roxas said.
Poe, who is now halfway on her six-year term as Senator, will be facing other “resume” heavyweights in the presidential campaign.
Vice President Jejomar Binay, before getting appointed as an Officer-in-Charge Mayor of Makati, had been a human rights lawyer during the Martial Law years and has an extensive portfolio in Local Governments.
Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who became a trial judge and a speech writer of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., has a number of post-doctorate degrees in Law and Political Science. She was also elected as a judge of the International Criminal Court before begging off because of health reasons.
Roxas has an economics degree from the Wharton School of Economics and was an investment banker in New York before pursuing politics.
Roxas had earlier made sweeping claims that he would not to be involved in any attacks against Senator Poe or other presidential candidates.
“I can speak for myself, my campaign, the directives of the President, the campaigns, the hierarchy, the party has made and that is what we stand by,” Roxas said.
Meanwhile, Poe shrugged off the issues on her “lean” resume and said she would be the best for the presidency.
“My resume is lean enough that I don’t have added baggage,” Poe said.
