CONTINUING REFORMS FOR 16th CONGRESS: Senate President Franklin Drilon tells businessmen during the annual meeting of the Makati Business Club (MBC) held at the Peninsula Manila in Makati City Thursday, August 6, 2015, that the Senate will continue to work on bills that will improve the economy, create a stable political environment and expand the distribution of social services. “We shall continue in the last regular session of this Congress, and even beyond, the pursuit of good governance and the audacity to implement meaningful reforms, no matter how unpopular they may be,” Drilon said. (MNS photo)
MANILA (Mabuhay) – While backing the possible tandem of administration’s presumptive presidential bet Interior Secretary Mar Roxas and Senator Grace Poe, Senate President Franklin Drilon expressed confidence that Roxas could still win in 2016 without the neophyte senator.
“Mar will build up his strength as a presidential candidate,” Drilon said in an interview Thursday at the Makati Business Club Annual Meeting.
He also reiterated the Liberal Party’s preference to have Poe as Roxas’ running mate, describing her “an ally of the administration.”
“Grace Poe has been an ally of the administration. She has been supportive of the administration in the Senate, and yes, we would like Grace Poe to be nominated as running mate of Mar,” Drilon said.
Drilon also said they see in Poe, daughter of the late actor Fernando Poe Jr., somebody who can support the reforms of the administration.
“This administration wish to continue [those reforms] in the next administration,” he said.
Last Friday, President Benigno Aquino III endorsed Roxas as his successor in 2016. The DILG secretary, on live television Wednesday, asked Poe to join his team.
Poe, meanwhile, has yet to decide if she will seek a higher elected post next year. (MNS)