‘Not once, but twice!’: Showbiz queen’s rage echoes in politics
MANILA — Susan Roces, fondly regarded in her industry as the “Queen of Philippine Movies,” had a brief but dramatic performance, so to speak, in the country’s political scene, about a year after she was drawn into that arena in 2004 when her husband, Fernando Poe Jr., ran for president.
“Da King,” as Poe was popularly referred to in his long and prolific film career, introduced his wife (real name Jesusa Sonora Poe) as “Inday” to reporters covering his campaign, and Roces had her own star quality in the couple’s foray into politics—which alas ended with Poe’s defeat to Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the May polls that year.
Poe died suddenly from cerebral thrombosis seven months later. But this chapter in politics was not over for Roces, who asked to be named petitioner in her husband’s protest before members of the Supreme Court convening as the
Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET).
High drama
By April 2005, the PET j unked Roces’ petition to substitute for her husband, as it noted that she was not the “interested party” in the electoral protest.
Two months later Roces held a press conference demanding President Macapagal-Arroyo’s resignation, after she went on national television on June 27 to confront “the issue of the tape recordings [which] has spun out of control.”
Amid the scandal which erupted at that time over taped conversations between C o m m i s s i o n e r V i r g i l i o Garcillano of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and a woman whom many believed to be Macapagal-Arroyo, the President made her broadcast to acknowledge that she “had conversations with many people, including a Comelec official” whom she did not name, even as she maintained that “My intent was not to influence the outcome of the [2004] election.”
Still, she said “I recognize that making any such call was a lapse in judgment. I am sorry.”
The t ranscript of t hat address is available in the Official Gazette.
Roces’ press conference two days later was an occasion of high drama, complete with memorable lines, as she rejected Macapagal- Arroyo’s apology to the nation, accused her of “destroying your countrymen’s trust” and concluded from the President’s address that “Obviously you have no love for your country.”
“Mrs. Arroyo,” Roces said with a pause, shaking her head, “as I was watching you, … I could see in your eyes that your [plea] does not come from your heart.”
“We have a saying in Filipino: The liar is kin to the thief.”
“The gravest thing that you have done is that you have stolen the presidency, not once
but twice!”
Roces’ speech, as many observed then, rattled the Macapagal-Arroyo presidency throughout that scandal, and this combative stance inspired the opposition to seek her leadership.
But she was reluctant to assume that role, after that fiery appearance on the political stage.
It wasn’t until 10 years later that Roces reemerged in the political limelight, this time to defend her daughter, Sen.
Grace Poe, who as a presidential candidate was contending with several disqualification cases over questions about her citizenship.
“Grace is our daughter! She still had her umbilical cord when
she was found in a church in Jaro, Iloilo. I don’t know what their standards are. What’s their right to dismiss what we fought for in
court so she could have a birth certificate,” Roces said with that familiar indignation.
“I never called her adopted or a foundling.Howdaretheyusethatword!”
Roces died on Friday night, just five days after President Duterte signed into law a measure
providing “greater protections” to deserted and abandoned children with unknown parents—a matter very much related to Senator Poe’s case in 2016.( Christine O. Avendaño, Julie M. Aurelio, Nestor A. Corrales And Inquirer Research © Philippine Daily Inquirer 2022)