Poe makes sentimental journey to see ‘Panday’

BATAC CITY, Ilocos Norte – A festive and sentimental journey it was for Senator Grace Poe when she kicked off her presidential campaign sorties in Northern Luzon yesterday with a taste of native delicacies at the public market in this city and a visit to the statue of her late father, Fernando Poe Jr., at the sand dunes of Paoay.

Poe, accompanied by senatorial bet and Manila Vice Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso, arrived

at the Laoag International Airport at 7 a.m. and proceeded straight to the Batac City Public Market to get a fill of native rice cakes.

A motorcade followed, with Poe and Moreno waving to residents lined up along the streets going to Batac City Hall, where she was welcomed by Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos.

The lady governor, then accompanied Poe, who is running for president as an independent, to the famous Saint Augustine Church in Paoay where they said a short prayer.

The next stop was a sentimental journey for Poe, paying homage to the spot where her late father known in the showbiz world as “The King of Philippine Movies” is immortalized as one of his famous screen roles, “Flavio” of the blockbuster hit “Ang Panday” (The Blacksmith).

The fiberglass statue of FPJ was done by artist Raphael David, who ren- dered Poe’s iconic fantasy character as a hero on attack with his sword raised to the heavens. It was unveiled last May 1 at the sand dunes in Barangay Suba, Paoay, where the motion picture was filmed in 1980 and then had three more sequels.

From the sand dunes, the adopted daughter of FPJ and Susan Roces was overwhelmingly welcomed by thousands of students at the Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU).

Speaking before the crowd, Poe said, “The focus of my platform in running for presidency in the May 9, 2016 polls is education, jobs and livelihood generation, fight corruption; agriculture modernization and eliminate hunger and poverty,” she said.

“We need to strengthen the tourism industry to create jobs for the people and to strengthen the farming sector to improve their farm productivity by giving them free irrigation facilities, free seeds and fertilizers,” she added.

She said she is pushing for “free lunch for students in public schools” to give them more strength in their classes.

To help the students strengthen their research capabilities using the Internet, Poe is looking to install free Wi-Fi in the campuses of all state colleges and universities in the country.

For more transparency in governance, she said she would push for the passage of the Freedom of Information Bill to allow every Filipinos to get involved in safeguarding the funds and implementation of programs and projects of the national government.

After the forum at MMSU, Poe and her team proceeded to the capitol in Vigan City, Ilocos Sur to meet the leaders and officials of the province in the afternoon.