Poe on SONA split-screen with Binay, Roxas: 'I felt very awkward'

"I felt very awkward."

 

That was how Senator Grace Poe described a moment during President Benigno Aquino III's State of the Nation Address when she was flashed on a split-screen along with Vice President Jejomar Binay and Interior Secretary Mar Roxas.

 

The moment came when Aquino spoke about the 2016 elections, highlighting the need for the electorate to vote for someone who would continue his "Daang Matuwid" after his term ends.

 

"Siyempre I wasn't expecting it. Para bang alam na nila kung saan kami nakaupo at nilabas na lahat dun," Poe told reporters.

The split-screen was part of the broadcast by the Presidential Broadcast Staff Radio-Television Malacanang (PBS-RTVM) and was carried by other television networks.

 

Binay has long declared his intent to run as candidate, while Roxas has been tabbed as the presumptive standard-bearer for 2016 by the Liberal Party, of which Aquino is a member. Poe, meanwhile, has not yet declared an intention to run for president, but has topped recent surveys.

 

Aquino mentioned neither Poe nor Binay in his speech, but lavished praise upon Roxas, who ran as his vice president in 2010.

 

Poe, however, refused to read anything into the president's speech when it comes to Aquino's endorsement for a successor.

 

"Mismong ang Pangulo ay wala namang binabanggit na maski na sino. Ayokong interpret-in yun," she said.

 

But Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano believes that Aquino's statements about Roxas indicated which way the president was leaning.

 

"Kumbaga sa nagliligawan may mga kindatan at nagsabi na you cannot put a good man down, ang tingin ko ay sinasabi niyang go ahead," said Cayetano, a member of the Nacionalista Party who has previously indicated a desire to seek the presidency.

 

The senator said he was glad Aquino did not take the opportunity to name his presidential bet for nex year.

 

"Masaya ako na nirespeto niya ang SONA at ihihiwalay niya kung kelan ang pulitika. I think it was gracious of the cameraman (to have a split screen). I think may go signal sa kanila 'yung tatlong leading candidates at hindi isang leading candidate lang ang ipinakita," he said.

 

"I think ang statement doon ay buhay ang demokrasya at ang tao ang mamimili kung sino ang gusto nila," said Cayetano. —JST, GMA News