Grace Poe

Mary Grace Natividad Sonora Poe-Llamanzares (born September 3, 1968) is a Filipino politician, businesswoman, educator, and philanthropist serving as a senator since 2013.

Poe was found on September 3, 1968, in Iloilo City by a woman, in the holy water font of Jaro Metropolitan Cathedral, the main church of the city.

When the infant was discovered, the parish priest named her "Grace" in the belief that her finding was through the grace of God; she was christened by Jaime Sin, the Archbishop of Jaro, who would later become Archbishop of Manila.

Although the cathedral issued an announcement in the hopes that her biological mother would claim her, no one stepped forward.

Poe was eventually taken in by the Militar family, with Sayong Militar's in-law Edgardo, who was a signatory on the child's foundling certificate, considered to be her possible father.

Her name on her original Certificate of Live Birth was given as Mary Grace Natividad Sonora Militar.

Sayong Militar later passed Grace on to her friend Tessie Ledesma Valencia, an unmarried, childless heiress of a sugar baron from Bacolod, Negros Occidental.

Valencia was also a friend of film stars Fernando Poe Jr.. and Susan Roces, who were newlyweds at the time; Valencia was an acquaintance of Roces and was the one who brought Grace in trips between Bacolod and Manila.

The Poes took Grace in after Valencia decided the baby would be better off with two parents in the Philippines rather than with her as a single parent in the United States, where she was moving to.

Militar was initially hesitant in letting the Poe couple adopt Grace because she was unfamiliar with them, having entrusted the baby to Valencia, but was convinced by Archbishop Sin to let the couple adopt her.

Poe was legally adopted by the actors Fernando Poe Jr.. and Susan Roces and she was named Mary Grace Natividad Sonora Poe by them.

While still young, she watched her father from the sets of his movies—even playing minor roles in some of them, such as the daughter of Paquito Diaz's character in Durugin si Totoy Bato, and as a street child in Dugo ng Bayan.

Ultimately, Poe did not enter show business.

In 1975, Poe attended elementary school at Saint Paul College of Pasig and Saint Paul College of Makati.

In 1982, Poe transferred to Assumption College San Lorenzo for high school.

Following high school, Poe entered the University of the Philippines Manila (UP), where she majored in development studies.

She transferred to Boston College, where she graduated with a degree in political science in 1991.

She interned for Bill Weld's campaign while in college.

In 2003, Poe's father, Fernando Poe Jr.., announced that he was entering politics, running for president of the Philippines in the upcoming election under the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP) against then-president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Poe returned to the Philippines to help him campaign, but returned to the United States afterward.

Fernando Poe Jr.. was rushed to the hospital after a stroke later that year.

In 2004, her father ran for the Philippine presidency against the incumbent, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, but was defeated; he died months later.

Grace immediately returned to the Philippines, only to arrive shortly after her father had died on December 14, 2004.

She also became honorary chairperson of the FPJ for President Movement (FPJPM), the group which was organized to pressure her father to run in 2004, continuing the movement's social relief programs for the less fortunate.

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.

Following her father's death, Poe and her family decided to return permanently to the Philippines on April 8, 2005, in order to be with her widowed mother.

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 the 2010 general election, Poe served as a convenor of Kontra Daya.

On October 10, 2010, President Benigno Aquino III appointed Poe to serve as chairwoman of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB).

She was sworn in on October 21, 2010, at the Malacañang Palace and was later reappointed by President Aquino for another term on October 23, 2011.

While at the MTRCB, Poe had advocated for a "progressive" agency which would have enabled the television and film industries to help the Philippine economy, with her tenure being marked by an emphasis on diplomacy.

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.