POE GOES ON SENTIMENTAL SORTIE TO BIRTHPLACE

After rallying supporters in her father's hometown, top presidential candidate Sen. Grace Poe will go on a sentimental journey to Jaro, Iloilo, her known birthplace, on Tuesday, carrying the dreams of a foundling who promises a "Gobyernong may Puso" for all Filipinos.

Poe, her running mate, Sen. Francis Escudero, and the senatorial bets running under their coalition, Partido Galing at Puso, will hold a rally in Carles town, where they are expected to present their platform of government.

The candidates will then proceed to the Barotac Viejo Public Market, where they will have a quick "meet-and-greet" with market vendors, buyers and workers. A press conference will follow at lunchtime.

Under her "Gobyernong may Puso," Poe said she would embark on a policy of providing solutions to the pressing challenges of ordinary Filipinos, such as high taxes, low wages, unreliable transport system and an impoverished agricultural sector.

"Parating na ang 'Gobyernong May Puso' na pantay-pantay ang pagpapatupad ng batas at ang tugon (sa mga problema) ay gawa, at hindi sisi," said Poe, who is leading all recent presidential preference surveys.

In the afternoon, Poe will be at the University of Iloilo for a no-holds-barred forum with students and faculty concerning her plans and programs of government, which are anchored on three things: Kabuhayan, Karunungan at Kaligtasan.

The University of Iloilo, which was founded in July 1947 by the Lopez brothers, Don Eugenio and Hon. Fernando Lopez, has some 7,000 students taking up courses on arts and science, accountancy, nursing, law, engineering and maritime education, among others.

After a brief rest from her engagement at the University of Iloilo, the senator will make her way to Jaro, where a local churchgoer had found her, an abandoned infant, in the holy water font of the Jaro Metropolitan Cathedral. She was then brought to the parish priest who named her "Grace" in the belief that her finding was through the grace of God.

Poe was conferred the sacrament of confirmation by then Jaro Archbishop Jaime Sin, who would later become one of the country's democracy icons and the most famous archbishop of Manila. It was Sin who convinced the family that found Poe, to allow the child to be adopted by movie stars Fernando Poe Jr. (FPJ) and Susan Roces, who had no children of their own.

Iloilo is Poe's second stop in the Visayas; she and Escudero, who also leads vice-presidential preference surveys, were in Cebu on the second day of the campaign. The tandem was also warmly welcomed last week in Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur and Pangasinan, where FPJ hailed.