Senator Grace Poe (MNS Photo)
MANILA (Mabuhay) – Commission on Elections Chairman Sixto Brillantes on Wednesday said he is willing to assist Sen. Grace Poe if she decides to run for higher office in 2016.
Brillantes, who is set to retire as poll chief on February 2, said he will go back to private practice after his one-year ban from practicing electoral law is finished.
“I cannot practice election laws for one year when I leave the Comelec. So by February 2016, before the elections, I might be able to come back, not as an acting practitioner but probably consultant to some candidates. If any presidential candidate would like some advice, I could probably give some advice,” he said.
Asked who he will back in 2016, he joked: “The one who will pay the highest! I am just joking. I don’t want to make any commitment.”
However, he also said he will probably help Poe if she decides to run in the 2016 polls.
“Well if she runs in 2016, I will probably assist or help,” he said.
Brillantes served as election lawyer of Poe’s father, the late actor Fernando Poe Jr., during his electoral campaign in 2004.
He also served as the election lawyer of Benigno Aquino III during the 2010 presidential election.
Senator Poe is reportedly being eyed as a possible presidential candidate of the Liberal Party in the 2016 polls. (MNS)