MANILA, Nov. 25 (PNA) – Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Florencio Abad said on Wednesday “there is no doubt” that Liberal Party (LP) standard-bearer Manuel “Mar” Roxas has the full backing of President Benigno Aquino III.
Abad made this reaction after President Aquino reiterated his call to allow the people to decide on whether or not they want Senator Grace Poe to be the next president amid disqualification cases filed against Poe.
”You know, in this season, people come out with all these assessments but I have no doubt and the President said that his candidate is Secretary Roxas,” Abad said in media interview after the Senate deliberations on the DBM’s 2016 budget worth PhP1.4 billion.
Abad said President Aquino also believes that Roxas is the most qualified to continue the “Daang Matuwid” (straight path) battle cry.
”So Secretary Mar Roxas will pursue it,” Abad, an LP member, said.
When asked if the entire Aquino family is behind Roxas, Abad said he can only speak for the President “because I have heard him speak in public as well as in private and his statement has been consistent.”
Abad believed that when President Aquino made his statement to let the electorate decide on Poe’s case, there is an assumption that the disqualification cases should go through all the process.
”There is a process you go through as a candidate. You have to satisfy all the qualifications and there is a question you have to settle. At the end of the day, you have to face the electorate and that’s going to happen,” Abad said.
”What the President is saying after all of that, let the people decide,” he added.
Poe hurdled the disqualification case filed against her before the Senate Electoral Tribunal but she has to face four separate disqualification cases filed at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) questioning her eligibility to run for president.
The petitioners claimed Poe is not a natural born Filipino because she is a foundling. (PNA)