Be strong, Mar tells Grace on UNA attack

LEGAZPI CITY—“Be strong.”

That was Interior Secretary Mar Roxas’ advice on Thursday to Sen. Grace Poe following the attack of the opposition United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) on her qualifications and citizenship on Tuesday.

Roxas, who calls Poe a “friend,” brushed off the questions raised by UNA against the senator as “technicalities” that had little bearing on her capability to fight corruption and those “enriching themselves by questionable means and deceiving the people”—an apparent dig at the head of UNA, Vice President Jejomar Binay, who is under investigation at the Senate and the Office of the Ombudsman for alleged corruption during his term as mayor of Makati City.

He said he regarded Poe a fellow champion of President Aquino’s reform program.

Roxas is the presumptive presidential candidate of the ruling Liberal Party next year, but he has not announced his candidacy. He has hinted, however, that he wants Poe as his vice presidential running mate if he will run for President.

Roxas was here for the turnover of 29 patrol jeeps to police units in Albay province.

He merely smiled when Gov. Joey Salceda referred to him as “President” during the turnover ceremony.

Salceda said he was courting the support of the residents of Albay for Roxas because the interior secretary was “clean, smart, hardworking and has a heart and conscience.”