Grace Poe: Rebuilding shattered families key to strong country

MANILA, Philippines - Overcoming creeping poverty that is shattering the  family – the basic unit of Filipino society – is the key to a strong and progressive country.

Grace Poe, who is running for senator under the ruling Liberal Party (LP), told The STAR that strengthening the family as a basic social institution would be her top political agenda if elected in the May midterm election.

An adopted daughter of the late actor and defeated presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr. (FPJ) and Susan Roces (Jesusa Sonora Poe), Poe shares her father’s passion to serve the poor.

“Poverty can break the Filipino family and bring great harm to our children,” she said.

Poe said she will introduce a legislative measure that would allow government to take a more active role in helping children of poor families.

Echoing national hero Jose Rizal, she said the nation’s future depends on the kind of citizens these children will become.

Poe, former chair of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB), said her political platform is to continue FPJ’s social covenant “POE” focusing on  Poverty alleviation, Opportunities for all especially the children, and Electoral reforms.

She has actively campaigned against electoral fraud that marred the presidential candidacy of her late father.

She was a convenor and active member of the Kontra Daya, a multi-sectoral group against election fraud.

As MTRCB chair, she reformed the classification system for movies and television, and provided institutional support to independent filmmakers.

Her work experience includes having been chief operating officer of FPJ Productions and Film Archives, Inc., former teacher of Montessori school in the US, and production manager.

Poe is married to Teodoro Misael Vera Llamanzares with whom she has three children: Brian, 20, Hanna, 14, and Nika, 8.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Boston College, and finished two years of Development Studies at the University of the Philippines-Manila.