‘FPJ would have been among first to help Yolanda victims’ – Sen. Grace Poe 

Senator Grace Poe said her father, the late actor and former presidential bet Fernando Poe Jr., would have been one of the first people fly to the Visayas region to help the victims of typhoon Yolanda if he were still alive.

Poe joined fans and kin in marking the ninth death anniversary of the late Filipino action king popularly known as FPJ with a mass held at the Poe family’s mausoleum at the Manila North Cemetery, a “Balitanghali” report aired Saturday said.



The report said Susan Roces, FPJ’s widow, was not present at the mass because she preferred to visit her late husband’s tomb privately.

In a short speech, Poe thanked her father’s long-time supporters-- led by the FPJ for President Movement (FPJPM)-- for remembering her father and for supporting her advocacies.

Although Poe has yet to announce her political plans in 2016, FPJPM members said they will continue to support her in the same manner that they backed her father when he ran for president nine years ago.

Poe died of a stroke in 2004 but not before contesting the results of that year's presidential elections.

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo won after garnering 12,905,808 votes against the 11,782,232 tallied for FPJ. Poe claimed Arroyo robbed him of his victory.

The Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), however, dismissed the protest in 2005 saying FPJ's widow was not the proper party to pursue the case.

FPJ was honored as a National Artist on May 24, 2006  through Philippine Proclamation No. 1065. — Xianne Arcangel/JDS, GMA News