Marcos: Poe is very qualified

PRESIDENTIAL aspirant Grace Poe is ready to run the country despite being in government for only five years, Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said yesterday.

Marcos told reporters he was “quite impressed” by Poe’s election to the Senate in 2013 even if she only had two years of government experience as chair of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board from 2010 to 2012.

“I did not know what to expect and I’m pleasantly surprised that she is very well prepared, and she has good understanding of the issues,” the senator said.

“Despite the fact that she has only spent three years in the government (Senate), I think she has all the tools available to her and we wish her the best of luck in all her endeavors,” he added.

Meanwhile, Marcos reiterated that his father, the late president Ferdinand Marcos, was not the biological father of Poe.

Rumors said Poe was the love child of the former leader and actress Rosemarie Sonora, sister of her adoptive mother and veteran actress Susan Roces.

“Those were just rumors so we just take it as a joke,” Marcos said.

Poe earlier underwent DNA test to prove that she is a natural born Filipino and to trace her biological parents.

Marcos, meanwhile, has fixed a date to announce his formal declaration of his candi- dacy for vice president in the 2016 elections.

“I have no significant announcement to make, except for that I have scheduled my official, supposed announcement for Saturday in the afternoon (Oct. 10),” Marcos said.

Marcos is the fifth elected official to declare his intention to run for the second highest elective post next year.

The four others are senators Francis Escudero, Alan Peter Cayetano and Antonio Trillanes IV, and Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo.