CANDELARIA, Quezon—Senator Grace Poe said Wednesday she will not exact revenge on the people behind the moves to stop her from running for President after the Supreme Court rejected her disqualification by the Commission on Elections on Tuesday.
Speaking at the Hacienda Inn here, Poe called for magnanimity and reconciliation amid talks of possible impeachment moves against the Supreme Court justices who voted to allow her to run for president in this year’s elections.
“All of those legal rumblings and all of those legal questions I believe were already settled by the Supreme Court. It’s up to them if they don’t believe it,” Poe said.
“In victory there should be magnanimity. I no longer want to get back at [the people who wanted to stop me from running for president].”
Poe’s running mate Francis Escudero praised the Supreme Court’s decision on her case.
“The Supreme Court said the Comelec was wrong; they abused their discretion. That’s why they granted the petition of Senator Grace,” Escudero said.
“If there was betrayal or violation of the law, those involved here were the Comelec commissioners who voted against Senator Grace.”
Poe said there were politicians from other parties who expressed their intention to support her candidacy or to join her team following the Supreme Court’s decision allowing her to run for president. She said she would name them in due time.
Poe said she understood the situation of the local candidates who earlier manifested the desire to support her but entertained doubts as a result of the disqualification cases filed against her.
Escudero said he could not thank the Supreme Court enough for removing all the legal obstacles placed before Poe.
Months of uncertainty came to an end after the Supreme Court voted 9-6 to approve her plea to have the Comelec’s decision canceling her Certificate of Candidacy for president.
Escudero said the high court ruling allowed Poe and the Partido Galing at Puso to focus on the electoral campaign under the banner “Gobyernong may Puso.”
“We are hoping this will continue and we can effectively send our message to various parts of the country,” he said.
Poe and Escudero are both frontrunners in the various pre-election surveys.
They and their senatorial bets were in Quezon to woo voters and solidify support among local officials and candidates of the Nationalist People’s Coalition, which had recently endorsed them.
They visited the cities of Lucena, Tanauan and Tayabas as well as the towns of Lopez, Catanauan, Candelaria and Lucban. They also held meetings with officials and candidates from other towns.
Quezon has 1,124,090 registered voters for the coming general elections based on Commission on Elections’ data. Macon Ramos-Araneta