IN DEFENSE OF MAR ARANETA ROXAS

Subject: IN DEFENSE OF MAR ARANETA ROXAS August 8th 2015, 10:13 am

In one of his Facebook posts, Albay Gov. Joey Salceda defends Sec. Mar Roxas after being reportedly tagged as "hollow man" in an article. In Governor Salceda's post, he writes:

IN DEFENSE OF MAR ARANETA ROXAS

I went for Mar because I personally knew that he stands for something - clean government - and that commitment has been tested by a rent-seeking political economy and he has clearly and consistently demonstrated this commitment since he entered public service in 1994 when he replaced his brother.

After Chavit's expose, he was first to resign from Erap's cabinet. After Garci tapes exploded on May 6, he led the Liberal Party in leaving the PGMA coalition and two months later LP led the Hyatt 10 on July 8.

During the Cancun WTO negotiations, Walden himself witnessed how Sec. Mar Roxas led the Philippine delegation in walking out when he fought for a better deal for developing countries esp in TRIPS, specifically among others patent relief for medicines which would allow cheaper access to intellectual property particularly during outbreaks and health crisis.

We can revisit his major policy positions in Congress, in DTI, in the Senate and now as member of PNoy's cabinet. What stands out immediately is how he prohibited family-owned Araneta complex from riding the property boom that resulted from the rapid BPO growth which he fathered and nurtured.

Walden's hollow man describes someone light years distant from Mar Roxas. With respect to vested interests, first, there are countervailing forces from WTO, AEC and even APEC moving towards a common market that would ensure domestic markets become more contestable that would compel these big business groups in behaving reasonably competitive, second, the Aquino administration has enacted the Fair Competition Law and amendments to Cabotage law that have been pending in Congress since 1987.

Certainly, the primordial challenge remains in making the economy more socially expansive and I believe amongst the candidates only Mar has built from 22 years in national policy domain (certainly the most directly exposed amongst the presidential aspirants) the intellectual handle, the political skills and the market savvy in engineering and restructuring a more egalitarian society in the next 6 years.

He has the heart for the ordinary Filipino families and has the brains in creating a broad middle class by empowering the lower income classes.

» Roxas of Yolanda