I’ll focus on my campaign, not on Poe’s DQ – Mar

MANILA, Philippines - Liberal Party (LP) presidential candidate Manuel Roxas II continued to distance himself from the disqualification cases being faced by independent presidential candidate Sen. Grace Poe, saying he would just focus on his own campaign.

Roxas declined to comment on reports that he and LP were behind the string of similar petitions seeking to disqualify Poe, with some of the petitioners supposedly having ties with the LP, while the officials of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) are appointees of President Aquino.

“As you can see, my focus is just presenting my governance platform and convincing our countrymen of our candidacy,” Roxas told reporters in Filipino after he spoke at a forum in Quezon City.

When asked about his alleged involvement in the petitions against Poe, he maintained he had nothing to do with them nor had he influenced the Comelec commissioners to disqualify Poe.

“I think you better ask them (Comelec) why that was their decision,” he said.

Poe continues to be a strong candidate based on pre-election surveys for president, but Roxas has been lagging behind the polls and trying to catch up with his numerous out-of-town sorties.

LP spokesmen Reps. Romero Quimbo of Marikina City and Ibarra Gutierrez of the Akbayan party-list group maintained that the ruling party was not behind the disqualification moves.

“Why do they (Poe camp) keep pointing at us? The fact that one of the President’s appointees voted against the ruling means that the administration has nothing to do with the latest disqualification,” Quimbo said in a telephone interview, referring to Comelec Commissioner Christian Robert Lim, who dissented in the decision to disqualify Poe.

“We have no connections whatsoever with the petitioners. I believe some of them are identified with another presidential candidate,” he said.

Quimbo said Poe has many avenues for legal redress and she is expected to take them.

Gutierrez said Poe should accept the Comelec’s decision to disqualify her.

“Let’s us accept and respect the ruling because that is part of the law and constitutional processes,” Gutierrez said. “Emotions must be set aside. Legal arguments and reasoning should always prevail.”