Will there be a Second Roxas in the Malacañang?

Tuesday, October 14, 2008 | posted in , , , , , , , , , | 0 comments

As of this blogging, I had done watching Senator Mar Roxas' interview with Strictly Politics' Pia Hontiveros in ANC. But before this, I didn't know that he would be Strictly Politics' guest for their episode tonight. It just happened that I saw the TV plug by channel surfing from CNN to BBC, and from ABS-CBN to GMA. I saw the plug somewhat before ANC's Primenews.

The program started a bit late (it started about 8 minutes late) but Pia's introduction compensated my long wait.

OMG! My blog was mentioned in Pia's introduction by saying that "there's now a Mar Roxas for President in 2010 Blog" (and it's this blog) and it contains Senator Roxas' statements on different current issues like the "E-VAT on oil, Claudio Teehankee's release, financial crisis..." Thanks for the mention Pia!

The first topic was mainly on 2010 where Senator Roxas is presumed to be running for President in 2010. Pia kept on asking if he's really running for President. Senator Roxas told her about his philosophy in life. He said that he is ready for anything and if ever it would be the Presidency, then he's willing to take it. He further said that he never expected to be in the political arena. It just happened that his brother, Dinggoy, the former Congressman of Capiz died early and he had to replace him. It might be his political pedigree and experience that made him this far. That's why the program's topic was "Will there be a Second Roxas in the Malacañang?"

In the economy topic, which Pia referred to as the issue that is "close to your (Senator Roxas) heart", Senator Roxas made known to the public his proposed plans on how to cushion the effect of the "financial tsunami" that is slowly hitting the Philippines amidst the economic crisis in the United States as well as in Europe and in Japan. He has proposed a P100 billion economic stimulus package which would revitalize the economy. He told Pia that it might take about 2 years for the world economy to recover from this crisis. We were lucky that we were not immediately affected by the first wave, he said. But the second and third wave might do as it will hit heavily on our export industry and the Overseas Filipino Workers. One thing inside his proposed stimulus package is to give a P5,000 income tax credit to each of the 4 million workers so that they can stabilize their family's budget and they can spend it on their basic needs. It would cost the government P20 billion but he assured that it can still pay-off because the purchases that the people would be making would be "VATable".

Another proposal of him is to pour additional money on education. He said that it's a long-term goal in improving our country but it would surely pay-off. Investing in education would be a worthy investment that the government can enter as it would prepare the next generation in handling the country properly. He noted that only a few graduate in elementary so does in high school and only a few of that already few would enter or succeed in college. For me, that's really alarming and the government must take action on this. These statistics are not new. We've been hearing a lot of these but no one has ever given a workable plan except Senator Roxas who proposes to focus the DepEd budget on a specific aspect every fiscal year. For example, in one fiscal year, the DepEd budget can be focused on supplying educational materials while on the next fiscal year, it can be focused on establishing and improving educational facilities. He doesn't want to make the budget in "tingi-tingi" or a few for these and a few for that. He believes that by giving a "bulto" or a whole to a specific thing, we can address the shortcomings of our educational system. As of this time, of all the potential presidential candidates, only Senator Roxas has a clear plan for uplifting the quality of our education.

On the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD), he felt vindicated that he was fighting for the right thing as the Supreme Court declared that the MOA-AD of the Philippine Government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front was unconstitutional. He was being called as a warmonger by several groups which I tend to disagree. He just hates the way how President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo does things. He said that Mrs. Arroyo wants to do everything that way she likes it even if it would be unconstitutional and wants the people to challenge her in the courts if they disagree with her. Indeed, from EO 464 to Proclamation 1017 and from Calibrated Pre-emptive Response to the People's Initiative, all of these were declared unconstitutional or partly unconstitutional.

Speaking of his ambition, Pia asked if ever he wanted to become President. Senator Roxas insisted that he would do everything that he can in whatever position he may be. He made a good point in saying that he is not consumed by his ambition. Although having an ambition would be good, but having your entire life consumed by it would destroy you. It would be like achieving something or nothing that you would commit suicide if you won't achieve your ambition. For him, if the Presidency is destined for him, then he'll give all his best. If not, then why insist?

The interview was quite a good one as it is Senator Roxas' second major one-on-one interview in ANC (the first one was with The Big Picture's Ricky Carandang). Though it was "bitin", it was worth watching. That's all I got for you pipz! I’ve got to sleep.



About The Blogger
Kevin Ray N. Chua

Kevin Ray N. Chua is a 19 year-old blogger from Cebu City, Philippines and an IT Student at Cebu Institute of Technology.

He is currently the Secretary General of the CIT-SSG.

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