PRESIDENTIAL candidate Senator Grace Poe said Wednesday she will announce her “unifying” senatorial lineup with two “surprise candidates” during a simple ceremony at 10 a.m. today at the Club Filipino in San Juan City.
She declined to name the members of her senatorial team who will run under the banner #PartidoGALINGatPUSO.
But sources said among the possible candidates under the tandem of Poe and Francis Escudero were Reps. Sherwin Gatchalian and Roman Romulo of Valenzuela and Pasig, respectively; Makabayan party-list Rep. Neri Colmenares, ACT-CIS party-list Samuel Pagdilao, Lorna Kapunan, actor Edu Manzano, Manila Vice Mayor Isko Moreno, Senators Vicente Sotto and Ralph Recto and returning Senators Richard Gordon and Juan Miguel Zubiri.
Poe and Escudero, who filed their candidacy as independent candidates, had earlier endorsed the senatorial bid of Colmenares, Moreno and Kapunan.
In a phone patch interview in the Senate, Cebu Rep. Ace Durano said all the 12 senatorial candidates had confirmed their attendance in Club Filipino. He did not name them but described them as “highly accomplished individuals” representing a broad sector of society.
He said there would be two surprise candidates whom he described as “really capable” and “accomplished individuals” and who were “first timers in the Senate.”
Meanwhile, Senator Panfilo Lacson, who was initially reported as among the senatorial candidates of Poe and Escudero, on Monday said he was dropped from the list in favor of Manzano. He said Poe called him up last Friday and asked if it was okay for him to give way to Manzano.
The former rehabilitation czar and PNP director said Poe invited him to meet with her twice to request that he be included in her slate. He agreed with a clear understanding that there would be no obligations imposed on either party.
Poe confirmed they invited Lacson to join them, but then they found out that he was also a guest candidate of two other strong political parties—the ruling Liberal Party and the opposition’s United Nationalist Alliance.