By Jelly F. Musico
MANILA, July 15 (PNA) – Senator Serge Osmena III on Wednesday sees Senator Grace Poe to be a better president by 2022 if she will serve first as vice president.
”Just look at it from her perspective, she would be better off, and she would make a better president if she has six years as vice president because she’s fairly new in this game,” Osmena said in an interview with Senate media.
Poe, adopted daughter of the late popular movie actor Fernando Poe Jr., won as neophyte senator with the highest votes in the 2013 midterm elections.
”This is not all about national politics and winning the elections. After that, the big work comes, the headache comes running the country. That’s too difficult. If you stumble around, then the whole country stumbles with you,” Osmena said.
Osmena admitted that Poe, who is leading the presidential surveys, got the gifts and talent to run for president.
”So if she serves as VP for six years, in 2022, she’s a sure winner,” Osmena said.
Poe along with her 2013 campaign manager Senator Francis ‘Chiz’ Escudero and Liberal Party’s presumptive presidential candidate Mar Roxas recently met with President Benigno Aquino III regarding the 2016 elections.
Osmena said Roxas, who is in third behind Vice President Jejomar Binay in the recent surveys, would gain more if Poe would not declare her candidacy for president in 2016.
”My estimate is that if grace withdraws from the presidential run, maybe 60 percent of her votes will go to Mar. Then the other 40 will probably divided to Binay, (Rodrigo) Duterte, and other,” Osmena, a veteran lawmaker from Cebu, said.
So far, Binay was the only candidate who openly declared his intention to run for president. (PNA)