Mitra’s son to FPJ: Why not horseback-riding for therapy?

Get on a horse and take a long, therapeutic ride instead of horsing around the country agitating people.

This was the unsolicited advice given by Palawan Rep. Abraham Mitra to Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP) standard-bearer Fernando Poe Jr. yesterday.

Mitra recommended this "post-election therapy" to Poe, saying his father, the late Speaker Ramon Mitra Sr. — who ran and lost in the 1992 presidential race — also sought solace among his horses.

Poe, who is a horse fancier like the late speaker and former senator, "like Tatay, could retreat to a horse farm to nurse his wounds and plan his future," the Palawan lawmaker said.

"At that time, he preferred the company of horses to politicians, some of whom betrayed him," the younger Mitra said of his father. He recalled that his father spent time riding or walking his prized racing thoroughbreds on the family farm in Batangas.

The Mitra patriarch was initially a front-runner in the 1992 presidential elections but was overtaken by Malacañang-backed Fidel Ramos in the homestretch.

The Palawan legislator said it would be better for Poe, who is now trailing President Arroyo in the congressional canvassing, "to hit the stables than gallop across the country agitating people to rise up against the government."

He said a dignified way for Poe to deal with his defeat "is to ride into the sunset, sent off by people who would whisper behind your back: ‘there goes a true gentleman.’"

Like the elder Mitra, Poe is also known as a horseman in real life and he has shown his skill in riding and handling horses in many of his blockbuster movies.

Administration Senator-elect Miriam Defensor-Santiago also advised Poe to either go back to making movies, cry in private, or join efforts for national unity as a way of coping with defeat. — Paolo Romero