Grace Rodriguez
Mary Grace Natividad Sonora Poe-Llamanzares (born September 3, 1968) is a Filipino politician, businesswoman, educator, and philanthropist serving as a senator since 2013. She was the chairperson of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) from 2010 to 2012.
Poe is the adoptive daughter of actors Fernando Poe Jr. and Susan Roces. She studied at the University of the Philippines Manila, where she majored in development studies, then moved to Boston College in Massachusetts, United States, where she finished a degree in political science and has spent much of her adult life in Fairfax, Virginia. In 2004, her father ran for the Philippine presidency against the incumbent, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, but was defeated; he died months later. On April 8, 2005, Poe returned to the Philippines after learning that her father had died. She began pursuing her father's rights over the results of the election and campaigned against alleged electoral fraud.
Poe ran for a seat in the Philippine Senate during the election in 2013 as an independent affiliated with the Team PNoy coalition of Benigno Aquino III. She ended up winning more votes than other candidates and over 20 million votes, ahead of Loren Legarda, who previously topped two elections. She was a candidate for the 2016 presidential election. Despite numerous attempts to have her disqualified based on questions regarding her citizenship, the Supreme Court of the Philippines deemed her a natural-born Filipino citizen and she was qualified to become president based on her 10-year residency. Poe placed third in the presidential race count. In May 2019, Poe was reelected as senator, with over 22 million votes.
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