{"id":61519,"date":"2015-09-17T18:08:17","date_gmt":"2015-09-17T10:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=61519"},"modified":"2015-09-17T18:19:07","modified_gmt":"2015-09-17T10:19:07","slug":"its-official-poe-escudero-tandem-in-2016-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/09\/17\/its-official-poe-escudero-tandem-in-2016-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s official: Poe-Escudero tandem in 2016 elections"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Senators<\/a>
Senators Grace Poe and Chiz Escudero (Photo from Escudero’s official Facebook page<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA \u2013 Senators Grace Poe and Francis \u201cChiz\u201d Escudero, both independents, have officially teamed up for next year\u2019s national elections.<\/p>\n

Poe declared her presidential candidacy yesterday evening at the University of the Philippines (UP) campus. Escudero, for his part, announced his vice presidential bid this morning at Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan.<\/p>\n

Their formal declarations were witnessed by families, friends and supporters, including Poe\u2019s mother, Susan Roces, and Escudero\u2019s wife, Heart Evangelista.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am Chiz Escudero, a Filipino, a son, husband, father, and a Bicolano public servant. With the grace of God and the Blessed Mother, I humbly offer myself to the mission of serving as your vice president… as the vice president of our country,\u201d he said in Tagalog.<\/p>\n

Although already content with his simple life, Escudero had bigger dreams for the Philippines.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn truth, I am more than content with my current life. I have only ever dreamed of a simple, honorable, happy, and peaceful life for myself and my beloved family,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the other hand, some people say: \u201cWho is this Chiz Escudero? So young, and living in just a humble townhouse in Quezon City. Who does he think he is to dream so boldly, to have such grand ambitions?!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a way, these people have a point. My family name is only Escudero. I don\u2019t have the same pedigree of Quezon, Roxas, or Osme\u00f1a families, of those who have become presidents, heroes or wealthy philanthropists. The Senate is the highest elected position that someone from my family has ever reached, and even this, I never imagined I might achieve,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd yet, I refuse to agree with those who say I have no right to have dreams or ambitions, especially if those dreams or ambitions are not for myself, but for our country and my fellow countrymen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Accepting Poe\u2019s offer to be her running mate, Escudero joined her in forming a \u201cGP\u201d or \u201cGobyernong may Puso<\/em>\u201d (Government with Heart), while also promising a more efficient government and staying as independent politicians with the country as their political party.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Vice President Jejomar \u201cJojo\u201d Binay and former Interior Secretary Manuel \u201cMar\u201d Roxas II, who have earlier expressed interests in joining the presidential race, have not yet presented their running mates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA \u2013 Senators Grace Poe and Francis \u201cChiz\u201d Escudero, both independents, have officially teamed up for next year\u2019s national elections. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":61521,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,1145,16,95,483],"tags":[249],"class_list":["post-61519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","category-politics","tag-rewrite","mauthors-cyra-moraleda","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}