Susan hits back at Grace detractors

MANILA, Philippines - It took the movie press to make Susan Roces  break her silence on her daughter Sen. Grace Poe’s detractors who have been hitting Grace without let-up, questioning her Filipino citizenship and her identity.

“I never called Grace adopted,” Susan said, turning emotional and on the verge of tears, during the press conference for Champion, the laundry soap she has been endorsing for nine years, at EDSA Shangri-La yesterday.

“Never ko siyang tinawag na ampon,” she stressed, and, alluding to Grace as having been pinulot (picked up), “never ko siyang tinawag na pulot.”

Then, breaking into a half- smile, her lips trembling a bit, she added, addressing Grace’s accusers, “How dare they use that word!”

Grace was found at the front of a church in Jaro, Iloilo, neatly wrapped in white cloth. Her birthday was placed on Sept. 3, 1968.

“Grace is our daughter,” stressed Susan still in Filipino. “Her umbilical cord was still uncut when she was found. Now, they are questioning her citizenship? On what bases? They disregarded Grace’s use of her father, Ronald Allan Poe, and my name, Jesusa Sonora Poe, which she listed when she filled up her certificate of candidacy (when she ran for senator on 2013)? What right do they have to declare worthless what we fought for in court… for her to have a true birth certificate?”

Looking back, Susan recalled that it was God’s will that she and her daughter would be together.

“I consider myself very lucky,” added Susan. “I prayed hard to have a child and God gave me Grace. Yes, she was found in a church. I told Grace, ‘Anak, (your parents) were good people, whoever they may be. They didn’t throw you into the trash can, they left you in the House of God.”

God did give Susan (and FPJ) what they wanted.

“I described to God the child that we wanted,” said Susan, “with eyes that sparkle, curly hair. Now, some people would show up from nowhere, out to destroy everything? They don’t have a right to finger-point (duru-duruin) at my daughter and call her not a citizen of this country.”

Saying she was hurting like any mother whose child is being treated cruelly, Susan explained, “Even an animal gets hurt if its small ones are treated that way. They will fight to death to defend their small ones. Try touching a newborn puppy and its mother will bite you.”

Reiterating what she has been telling the media, Susan said that she and FPJ raised Grace to be independent-minded, to make her own decisions, reminding her only not to lose herself and to follow her moral compass.

If ever Grace decides to run for higher position (vice president or president?), Susan said that she has told Grace to be ready for more mud slung at her.

There was a report that Grace was a drunkard and beater of househelp.

Shifting to a joking mood, she said, “I think those who were spreading those lies have watched a lot of FPJ movies.” Then, she broke into mild laughter.

“All I can say is that we were not brought up that way, and neither did we bring up Grace that way.” (Sources close to Grace ‘s family told The STAR that, in fact, Grace and her husband, Neil Llamanzares and their children treat the maids as part of the family. “The maids sleep in air-conditioned room,” the source said.)

Branding the accusation as “below the belt” and “too personal,” Susan again dismissed them as baseless.

“They have no right to spread those lies,” Susan stressed.