Poe, Escudero deny list of Senate bets
Senators Grace Poe and Chiz Escudero yesterday denied reports that they have sanctioned a list of senatorial candidates that they will carry in the May 2016 national and local elections.
In separate text messages, Poe and Escudero were skeptical over reports that a team supposedly tapped for their formidable tandem in the upcoming polls has been formed.
“No that is not true” was Poe’s short reply to a text message. Escudero, likewise, said he does not know where the idea came from.
However, Sen. Tito Sotto, a reelectionist senator and a member of the Nationalist Peoples’ Coalition, which is perceived to be courting Poe and Escudero to run under their political party, affirmed the senatorial list circulating.
“We were discussing it but nothing is final yet,” Sotto said.
Both senators are front-runners in the presidential and vice presidential surveys. After turning down the Liberal Party’s offer to be Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel “Mar” A. Roxas II’s running mate, Poe was sought out by members of the NPC which is the second largest political party in the country.
NPC is currently in coalition with the ruling Liberal Party, whose presidential bet is Roxas.
Sotto earlier told reporters majority of the party’s members are inclined to support Poe as a candidate for president and Escudero for vice president because of what they could bring to the NPC.
“If NPC supports them, we will be the lead political party. But if we support other candidates, we will be second-fiddle, we will be second-class citizens to the main political party,” Sotto explained.
The supposed senatorial list includes Las Piñas City Rep. Mark A. Villar, Valenzuela City Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian, Taguig City Rep. Lino Cayetano, House Independent Bloc Leader and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, Sotto, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto, Manila Vice Mayor Francisco Domagoso, also known as “Isko Moreno,” and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority Director General Joel Villanueva.