by BINGO P. DEJARESCO III

MAKATI.-  Former senator (1987-1992) and spokesperson of the late president Cory Aquino  told The Chronicle  Friday night  that if ” elections were held today, Senator Grace Poe will be a runaway winner”. 

Saguisag said Senator Grace Poe had comported herself well in matters of public concern- the latest was the Mamasapano senate probe and the way she fielded the opposition brow-beating her about Poe’s citizenship and legal residency. There is also a massive bloc of voters still smarting from the 2004 presidential loss of her father, the late actor Fernando Poe Jr, who was believed cheated in the counting against president Gloria Arroyo.

Two recent popular public pulse survey raters,namely, Pulse Asia and Social Weather Station (SWS) last week  had confirmed that the neophyte senator who topped the 2015 senatorial  polls with 15 million votes- has finally zoomed past perennial front-runner, the declared candidate Vice President Jojo Binay.

The survey results:

 

Pulse Asia:

Grace Poe          30%                  Mar Roxas         10%

Jojo Binay           22%                    Erap Estrada     10%

Rody Duterte       15%                    M Santiago           6%

 

 

Social Weather Station

Grace Poe          42%                  Mar Roxas          21%

Jojo Binay           34%                   Rody Duterte      20%

 

BINAY AMBIVALENCE

The likes of former senators Joker Arroyo, Saguiisag and Binay himself are few of the founding members of the lawyers’ group called MABINI who were strong human rights’ defenders against the abuses during Martial Law. Pressed to comment on whether the human rights group will support Binay’s presidential bid, in the midst of multi-million graft charges, senator Saguisag was not not clear and evasive.

Saguisag said: “It depends on who are running. If the only ones left are Binay and Duterte, it is obvious we will not support the anti human rights policies embodied in a Duterte. We will have a real problem if the choices left  are between Duterte and a Bongbong Marcos”, whose late father president Ferdinand Marcos- is  also accused of inflicting thousands of human rights abuses during Martial Law.

NPC, NP and PDP-LABAN

Aside from the ruling Liberal Party (LP) , three major political parties will soon make known their group support for a presidential candidate.

A big group in  the NPC  which boasts of close to 50 Lower House congressmen, had voiced their opinion that  they would likely go for a Poe-Chiz Escudero tandem.

On the other hand, NP titular head senator Cynthia Villar  Friday said :” If there is no NP candidate for president, the NP will likely adopt Grace Poe and not VP Binay-because two of our  NP party members, Alan Cayetano and Antonio Trillanes IV , spearheaded the Blue Ribbon Committee implicating Binay of fraud in two Makati buildings.”  Another NP presidentiable senator Bongbong Marcos remains unclear about his presidential ambition.

PDP-Laban , on the other hand,  headed by senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr, who had been at loggerheads with VP Binay resulting from the 2013 polls -is apparently backing up Duterte, if the Davao city mayor decides to gun for the presidency. Many in the LP is ,on paper, backing their presumptive candidate DILG Chief Mar Roxas.

President Noynoy Aquino will announce his anointed one after the SOA on July 26.