PRESIDENTIAL ASPIRANTS SERIES: GRACE POE
By Anton Antonio
August 12, 2015
“Campaign strategies should, at the very least, revolve
around the governance qualification and competence of a candidate. Mudslinging is part of the political
entertainment… but, again, at a certain point, this has to stop.” (Antonio,
2015) This was my last statement in a
blog/article titled “This Has To Stop” published and posted on http://antonantonio.blogspot.com/
and https://www.facebook.com/antonio.c.antonio. Consistent with my desire to make the 2016
presidential campaign a gentleman’s game, the articles to be carried in the
“Presidential Aspirants Series” will not indulge in mudslinging, vilification,
character assassination, image-demeaning, etc. hype that has been prevalent on
social media lately. In the next few
days, let us make better sense of things, level the playing field, and inform
the voting Filipinos on only the strengths of the declared presidential
aspirants. This way, we can all make
more informed and intelligent decisions based on merits; and not on negative
social media posts and information.
Please note that this “series” will only carry presidential aspirants
who categorically and publicly stated that they will run in 2016. To be
perfectly fair, the information used in this “series” will also consistently
come from the same source (Wikipedia).
Mary Grace Sonora Poe-Llamanzares (born September 3, 1968),
also commonly known as Grace Poe, is a Filipino politician who serves as chairperson
of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) from 2010
to 2012. Born in Iloilo but abandoned by
her biological mother at birth, she was later adopted by Philippine National
Artist Fernando Poe, Jr. and his wife Susan Roces.
She studied at the University of the Philippines Manila,
where she majored in Development Studies, and at Boston College, in the United
States, where she graduated with the degree in Political Science. Poe spent much of her adult life in the
United States. She returned to the
Philippines after learning that her father, who ran in a disputed presidential
election in 2004, died later that year.
Following her father’s death, Poe permanently returned to
the Philippines, where she started getting involved in politics. She began attracting national attention for
pursuing he father’s fight for closure over the results of the 2004 election,
which he believed he rightfully won, and campaigned against further electoral fraud.
In 2010, she was appointed by President Benigno Aquino III
to be the chairman of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board
(MTRCB), where she advocated for a progressive agency that would promote a
culture of intelligent media viewership, while at the same time supporting the
further development of the country’s film and television industries.
In 2010, Poe launched her candidacy for a seat in the
Senate, running in the 2013 senatorial election as an independent affiliated
with the Team PNoy coalition of President Aquino. Although initially faring poorly at the start
of the campaign season, she unexpectedly won a seat in the election with the
most votes out of all the candidates.
Mary Grace Poe was born on September 3, 1968 in Iloilo
City. Her biological parents are unknown
and she was found abandoned as a baby by a woman, allegedly in the holy water
font of Jaro Metropolitan Cathedral, the main church of the city. When the infant was discovered, the parish
priest named her “Grace” in the belief that her finding was through the grace
of God, she was christened by Jaime Sin, the Archbishop of Jaro and later
Archbishop of Manila. Although the
cathedral issued an announcement in the hopes that her biological mother would
claim her, no one stepped forward. Grace
was taken in by the Militar family, with Sayong’s in-law Edgardo, who is a
signatory on the child’s founding certificate, being a possible father. Chayong Militar later passed Grace on to her
friend Tessie Ledesma Valencia, an unmarried, childless heiress of a wealthy
sugar baron from Bacolod, Negros Occidental.
Valencia was also friends with film stars Fernando Poe, Jr.
and Susan Roces (real name: Jesusa Sonora), who were newlyweds at that time;
Valencia was a big fa of Roces, and the former would bring Grace on frequent
trips between Bacolod and Manila. The
Poes took Grace in after Valencia decided the baby would be better off with two
parents in the Philippines, than with her as a single parent in the United
States, where she was moving to. Militar
was initially hesitant in letting Poe and Roces adopt Grace because she was not
familiar with them, having entrusted the baby to Valencia, but was convinced by
Archbishop Sin to let the couple adopt her.
Poe was later legally adopted by the couple after further efforts to
search for her biological parents failed, and attended elementary school at
Saint Paul College of Makati.
Poe grew up in the shadow of her parents, with her father
starring in several action films throughout the 1970s, and her mother also
being regarded as an accomplished actress in her own right. She grew up watching her father from the sets
of his movies --- even playing minor roles in some of them, such as the
daughter of Paquito Diaz’s character in Durugin si Totoy Bato (“Crush Totay
Bato”), and as a street child in Dugo ng Bayan (“Blood of the Nation”). Although she contemplated becoming an actress
throughout her childhood, her father wished that she finish her studies first
before entering the entertainment industry.
Ultimately, Poe did not enter show business, in an interview with People
Asia, she recalls that “Even if A aspired to be in showbiz, I felt physically
(inadequate) being compared to (my parents).”
In 1982, Poe transferred to Assumption College San Lorenzo
for high school, where she competed in a number of oratorical contests and was
captain of the school’s debating team in her senior year. By the time she graduated from Assumption in
1986, she decided instead to pursue public service in order to set a different
career path for herself, as well as to avoid being compared to her parents. Following high school, Poe entered the
University of the Philippines Manila (UP), where she majored in development
studies. While at UP, she served in the
student council as a class representative for the two years she was there. She later decided to continue her
undergraduate studies abroad both to experience and prove her independence, and
as a form of silent rebellion in order to avoid the possibility of shaming her
parents. She transferred to Boston
College, where she graduated with a degree in political science in 1991. While at Boston College, she co-founded the
school’s Filipino Culture Club and served as an intern for the campaign of
William Weld in the 1990 Massachusetts gubernatorial election. After graduating, Poe continued to reside in
the United States, living a quiet life with her family in Fairfax,
Virginia. In 1995, she was hired by the
Montessori School of Cedar Lane, a local school where she worked for three
years as a preschool teacher. She then
served as a procurement liaison with the United States Geological Survey in
1998, where she worked for a year. In
2001, she was hired as a product manager with CSC Scientific, a local company
specializing in the production os scientific equipment, where she stayed until
2004.
In 2003, Fernando Poe, Jr. announced that he was entering
politics, running for President of the Philippines in the upcoming election
under the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP) against then-President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo. Poe returned to the
Philippines to help him campaign, but returned to the United States
afterward. However, as Fernando Poe, Jr.
was rushed to the hospital after a stroke later that year, she immediately
retrned to the Philippines, only to arrive after her father died on December
14, 2004.
Following her father’s death, Poe and her family decided to
permanently return to the Philippines in order to be with her widowed
mother. In 2005, she was made Vice
President and Treasurer of her father’s film production company, FPJ
Productions, and was put in charge of maintaining the company’s archive of over
200 films, reportedly one of the best in the Philippines in terms of the number
of films preserved. At the same time,
she began getting involved in politics herself, particularly after allegations
arose that her father’s loss was caused by electoral fraud committed by the
Arroyo administration. In the 2010
general election, Poe served as a convenor of Kontra Daya, a poll watchdog
organized to prevent electoral fraud, and spoke publicly about wanting to
prevent further cheating in the elections like the way her father was allegedly
cheated in 2004. She also became
honorary chairperson of the FPJ for President Movement (FPJPM), the group which
was organized to pressure her father to run in 2004, continuing the movement’s
social relief programs for the less fortunate.
On October 10, 2010, President Benigno Aquino III appointed
Poe to serve as chairwoman of the Movie and Television Review and
Classification Board (MTRCB), succeeding out going chairwoman Ma. Consoliza
Laguardia, who was appointed to the position in 2003. The appointment came as a surprise to Poe,
having learned of her appointment while vacationing with her mother in
California only two days before the formal announcement was made. She was sworn in on October 23, 2011. She continued to serve until October 2, 2012,
when she filed her candidacy for senator.
While at the MTRCB, Poe had advocated for a “progressive”
agency which would have enabled the television and film industries to help the
Philippine economy, with her tenure being marked by an emphasis on
diplomacy. At the beginning of her term,
Poe instigated the implementation of a new ratings system for television
programs, which she said was “designed to empower parents to exercise caution
and vigilance with the viewing habits of their children”. This was complemented by the implementation
of a new ratings system for movies --- a system which hews closely to the new
television ratings system --- at the end of her term. The MTRCB under Poe’s tenure also implemented
policies and programs to promote “intelligent viewing”, such as promulgating
the implementing rules and regulations for the Children’s Television Act of
1997 some fifteen years after its passage, and enforcing restrictions on the
type of viewing material that can be shown on public buses. Despite this thrust, Poe has spoken out
against restrictions on freedom of expression, preferring self-regulation to
censorship. The MTRCB under Poe’s tenure
has also encouraged the creation of new cinematic output through the reduction
of review fees despite cuts to its budget, and has promoted the welfare of
child and female actors.
Although Poe was rumored to be running for an elective
position as early as 2010, it was not confirmed that she would stand for
election until October 1, 2012, when President Aquino announced that she was
selected by the administration Team PNoy coalition as a member of their
senatorial slate. Poe filed her
certificate of candidacy the next day on October 2, 2012. Although running under the banner of the Team
PNoy coalition, Poe is officially running as an independent. Poe is also a guest candidate of the
left-leaning Makabayang Koalisyon ng Mamamayan.
Until February 21, 2013, Poe was, along with Senators Loren Legarda and
Francis Escudero, one of three common guest candidates of the opposition United
Nationalist Alliance (UNA) of Vice President Jejomar Binay. Analysts have noted the rapid rise of Poe in
national election surveys, which community organizer Harvey Keh attributed to
popular sympathy for her father, fuelled in part by high public trust in the
Poe name. Prior to the start of the
election season, Poe was ranked twenty-eighth in a preliminary survey conducted
by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) in mid-2012, before the start of the
filing period. Immediately after filing
her candidacy, Poe initially ranked fifteenth in the first survey of the
election, published by StratPOLLS. While
she has ranked as low as twentieth in a survey published by SWS later in the
year, she entered the top 12 in January 2013, where she has stayed since
then. In the last survey issued by Pulse
Asia in April, she was ranked third.
While Poe herself has admitted that her biggest strength in
the campaign is her surname, she has also conceded that it would be
insufficient for her to be elected simply on that alone, emphasizing that her
platform is just as important as her name in getting her elected to the
Senate. She has also dismissed claims
that her candidacy is her family’s revenge against her father’s loss in 2004,
saying that all she wants to do is serve should she be elected to the Senate. A day after the election, Poe became a
senator-elect when the results from the PCOS machines emerged. She was officially proclaimed a senator by
the COMELEC board on May 2013, along with fellow Team PNoy candidates Chiz
Escudero, Sonny Angara, Alan Peter Cayetano, and Loren Legarda, as well as
United Nationalist Alliance candidate Nancy Binay (who did not attend, opting
instead to send her lawyer to represent her.)
In the 2013 elections, Poe ran on an eleven-point platform
focused on poverty alleviation, youth opportunity and electoral reform,
promising to continue the legacy of her father.
Her labor legislative agenda also includes more opportunities, skill
development and growth for Filipino workers, employment security for the disabled
and handicapped, and protection of workers in the informal sector. Specific policies she advocated in the course
of her campaign include reviving the national elementary school lunch program
first introduced during Marcos Era, the installation of closed circuit
television cameras in government offices, a stricter penalties against child
pornography, continuing her earlier advocacy during her time st the MTRCB. In addition, she has also advocated against
Internet censorship. Poe also stressed
the importance of female participation in government, having already files a
number of legislations for the betterment of women and children in her term of
office; she has also called for an investigation on the proliferation of
cybersex dens that prey on children and women, and an inquiry on the condition
of women detainees and prisoners.
“Effective leadership can be gleaned not just from the progress of a few
but the advancement of the majority, especially those who find themselves in
the fringes,” Poe said during a speech delivered at the Philippine
International Convention Center (PICC) on May 28, 2015. This was attended mostly by female leaders
and entrepreneurs. “It is important for
women to have genuine meaningful participation in public affairs. Women leaders lave an invaluable take on
issues of public interest.” Grace Poe
stands against same-sex marriage.
She is widely speculated to be a potential presidential or
vice presidential candidate in the 2016 general elections (and thus seen as the
closest competitor to Vice President Jejomar Binay’s own presidential
aspirations) with possible running mates such as Rep. Leni Robredo and Senator
Mirian Defensor-Santiago. Poe placed
first on a presidential poll issued by Paulse Asia on June 2015 with a rating
of 30%, outranking previous frontrunner Vice President Jejomar Binay, who had
22% rating. She also placed first in the
vice-presidential poll, with a 41% preference nationwide. In a survey issued by Social Weather Stations
(SWS) on June 2015, Poe also placed first, with a 42% preference. She also placed first in SWS’ vice
–presidential poll, with a 42% rating.
Poe has two half-siblings born from her father: Ronian, born
to actress Ana Marin. And Lourdes Virginia (Lovi), born to model Rowena
Moran. Although she did not grow uo with
her half-siblings, even admitting that she met Lovi for the first time only
after their father died, she has known of them while growing up, and they
respect each other despite not being close to one another.
Poe is an avid reader, she has read all the books of David
Baldacci, who she describes as her favourite author, but she has read books
from a wide variety of genres and authors.
She is also an avid film aficionado, watching all kinds of movies but
with particulas affinity for action films, conspiracy movies, movies starring
her father, and movies with happy endings.
Poe is a tennis player and also has a black belt in taekwondo, having
competed in tournaments while in high school.
Poe met Teodoro Misael “Neil” Llamanzares in her senior year
of high school. The two started dating
thereafter, and married five years later on July 27, 1991, immediately after
Poe graduated from Boston College at the age of 22. The marriage went against the wishes of her
father, who wanted her to have a career first before marrying. Poe gave birth to her only son, Brian, on
April 16, 1992, and later gave birth to two daughters: Hanna in 1998, and Nikka
in 2004. --- Wikipedia
Allow me to reiterate that my purpose in the “Presidential
Aspirants Series” is to give the opportunity for the public to be exposed on
the merits and governance skill sets of perceived presidential aspirants in
next year’s election. And now that
you’ve read this piece together with the articles on the other presidential
aspirants, are you for Grace Poe?
Thoughts to
promote positive action…
(Please
visit, like and share Pro EARTH Crusaders on Facebook or follow me at http://antonantonio.blogspot.com/
and http://twitter.com/EarthCrusader/)
REFERENCES:
Antonio, A. C., (2015). “This Has To Stop”. Retrieved on August 12, 2015 from http://antonantonio.blogspot.com/2015/08/this-has-to-stop.html
Wikipedia, (2015).
“Grace Poe”. Retrieved on August
12, 2015 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Poe
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