Loyal fans offer Mass, flowers to mark Poe birth anniversary

Despite the early morning drizzle, loyal fans and supporters of the late movie icon and presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr. marked their idol’s 57th birth anniversary in simple rites at the North Cemetery in Manila Sunday. Members of the FPJ for President Movement trooped to the cemetery to hear the Holy Mass and offer flowers at the grave of Poe, who they insisted was the true winner of the May 2004 presidential elections. “To us, he is still the real president. He entered politics because the people asked him to," said Butch Cagsawan, head of the FPJ for President Movement. Cagsawan said that by all indications, Poe won the 2004 elections. Poe had lodged an electoral protest claiming that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had cheated in the elections. After Poe died in December 2004, however, the Supreme Court decided to render his protest moot. In June 2005, the disclosure of wiretapped phone conversations between Arroyo and then Elections Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano Jr. bolstered claims of the Poe camp. What would later be known as the "Hello, Garci" scandal triggered a series of protests and the mass resignation of 10 Cabinet members of Arroyo. “Let’s not lose hope. The truth cannot be hidden forever," Cagsawan said. Born on Aug. 20, 1939, Poe gained popularity for starring in numerous movies where he invariably essayed the role of champion and defender of the poor and oppressed. He was a bosom buddy of former President Joseph Estrada, an actor who similarly portrayed the same roles on the silver screen. Poe had campaigned actively for Estrada when Estrada ran for president in 1998. In 2003, Poe announced his presidential bid and formed the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP), which incorporated the Partido ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) of Estrada and the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP) of Sen. Edgardo Angara, who ran as Estrada’s vice presidential bet but was defeated by Arroyo in 1998. Early this year, Mrs Arroyo conferred on Poe a posthumous "National Artist" award but only a movie director friend -- not his widow Susan Roces -- received the honors at the Presidential Palace. - GMANews.Tv