Sen. Grace Poe Wants To Fight For The Right Of Foundlings Like Her

SEN. GRACE POE is not daunted by her detractors who continue to do a demolition job on her. “Basta ang prayer ko, the government should not abandon those who had already been abandoned by their own parents, yung foundlings o mga batang ampon, mga pulot. I might be silent sa attacks against me, but I’m committed to fight for the rights of foundlings to ensure that their status in life does not limit or hinder their dreams. Ang isang batang inabandona na nga ng kanyang mga magulang ay hindi dapat iabandona rin ng ating pamahalaan. It would be very sad to think that a person or a child will have to endure the injustices and the cruel words that I’ve gone through most of my life, especially in the past few months.”

Despite her victory at the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET), Poe has been assailed by political foes who insist that she is not a natural-born Filipino because she was a foundling whose biological parents could not be traced. Poe recently underwent DNA tests with two women, both descendants of the people who found her abandoned at the Jaro Cathedral in 1968, but their DNAs did not match. While she vowed to respect the rule of law, the senator maintained that she would exercise her right as a Filipino to seek legal redress and fight the disqualification cases lodged against her so that other foundlings who may want to become public servants would not have to go through the same hardships that she is confronting now.

From Edgardo and Sayong Militar, who found her left by her parents at the church, Poe was passed on to Negros haciendera Tessie Ledesma, who later asked her friends, showbiz royalty Fernando Poe Jr. (FPJ) and Susan Roces, if they wanted to adopt the baby. Roces has said in previous interviews that she was initially hesitant as they were then newly married but FPJ fell in love with the foundling. “Grace took her first steps in my husband’s company and her first word was papa,” Susan says. “It was God’s will that she came into our lives; she adored her father like anything. Grace was God’s gift to us.”