(Cross posted @ At Midfield)
This writer has personally known Manuel Araneta Roxas III since 2001, having worked with his media unit at the Department of Trade and Industry and I had occasion to work on his press messages in connection with such concerns then as the National Steel Corporation and the WTO regional discussions on tariff with regard to medicine.
Outside of government, we have since met only occasionally given my older friendship with Korina Sanchez in the news department of the old Maharlika Broadcasting System (now NBN) headed then by recently retired Maynilad Water spokesman Jess Matubis.
So you can say I’ve seen Senator Mar at work up close as part of the Executive Department, from a distance as legislator, and privately as likely husband of the lady I first met as an aspiring TV newscaster still studying at Maryknoll College and is now one of the Philippines’ key broadcaster journalists.
I am recalling this given Mar’s recent news-making pronouncements: his announced intention to run for president in 2010, and the expletive he spewed out during the recent anti- charter change interfaith rally.
I was also at last week’s more than 2-hour encounter invited bloggers had with him with the event at the ‘club house’ called Balai Ni Mar in Cubao’s Araneta Center.
The invite came from an old colleague, former press undersecretary Bobby Capco, whose calling card now identifies him as Mar’s communication director.
My take on the session:
The putative presidential candidate displayed ‘measured candidness’ and a good a fingertip-ready response to questions on economic and political questions as should be expected from anyone gunning for the land’s top elective post.
While it was the senator’s second encounter with Filipino bloggers, last Friday’s post-dinner informal Q & A consisted of more probing question with Mar displaying good humor for the most part even though the questions from left field more often speculative if not polemical.
But the ‘nimbleness’ on issues,if not conviction, that Mar projected gave this writer a hint of the following:
• He’ll tangle with the Catholic Church on the reproductive health issue and on population control
• He will be open to continue peace talks with Moro rebels but will draw the line on any attempt to dismember the Republic.
• The Constitution will be inviolable even under martial law situation.
• GMA should stand trial for alleged crimes.
• The possible grant of pardon to GMA if she is convicted will be addressed only if and when the question materializes.
So is Manuel A. Roxas ready to run for president? Yes he is decided to run..
Should Filipinos vote for him?
We must each define our what we want our next president to be and try hard, very hard to make informed decisions while also becoming the change we want our country, and our leaders, to be.
Popularity: 1% [?]
I repeat what I’ve stated in an earlier FV blogpost. What were the questions asked of the Senator, and what was his response?
The question “… why would I vote for you?” is good; I wish someone had asked “how do you compare your leadership ability and accomplishments to Manny Villar?”
UP n grad,
My apologies for missing that point in my recap.
When asked that question or its rough equivalent. I think it was ms. Caffeine Sparks who asked if Mar, in a sense, was one offering us change we could believe in ala Obama.
Mar (this is a paraphrase) said, “I am not a Pinoy Obama. I am Mar Roxas I and I believe we can offer the Filipino a government that will fight for his interests and do what’s right for the country.”
that’s a promise not a job to do.
What is Roxas performance in terms of accountability, transparency, integrity and credibility? Was he able to author and legislate a bill? What, where, when and how? What was his role to implement and enforce? Was he the initiator or a team member? What was the result ? Has he stepped up for himself to follow through a bill, such as the anti- corruption bill? (for example) Has he showed any leadership, interest and initiative to solve and discuss issues within his senate team such as the ZTE, Jocjoc, and the impeachment? What has he done for this country? Has he given anything to the poor?
(Do not ask for something if you have not given anything)
What is his take on the current drug issue and his concern for the youth of this country? How can he strengthen the rule of Law?
What implementation strategy would he propose to improve transparency rating and decrease corruption? What’s his economic agenda to increase employment? Who would implement his agenda if he can’t? Could it be the same old corrupt people who are only familiar with a system that writes on papyrus instead of Dell?
Is he aware that this country is unhappy? How can he motivate the people of this country to become productive work force?
When he becomes president, he will exactly do, enforce, and perform to correct those issues.
It’s really just the same old problems so there should be progress and results that people must expect. Meron ba? randam na randam niyo ba? hindi mo ba ako kilala?
Basta marami akong tanong. :)
Mar may be the one?
UP n grad,
I guess we are a lazy bunch of bloggers. Or we did not consider this to be a Press Conference assignment. If anyone recorded the conversations with mar, no one has bothered to transcribe them. I guess if you weren’t there, you weren’t there. We are not PDI. Actually I did turn on my voice recorder but haven’t even downloaded the files yet…
hey if u could, maybe u could upload parts of it!
UP n grad,
The handlers of Mar should do that. Perhaps their website should give a detailed recap.
Ding,
Did anyone ask Mar what his policy framework regarding targeting a forex rate?
Did anyone ask Mar what was his take on the apparent industrial policy of the U.S. government at the present time?
Did anyone ask Mar what was his take on a genuine asset reform in the agriculture sector?
Did anyone ask Mar what his take on the current policy of the BSP on targeting a beneficial inflation rate by making sure domestic interest rates give foreign investors a good arbitrage opportunity vis a vis the zero rate policy in most of the advanced world?
Does he favor a strong peso policy in light of the U.S. move to debase their currency to give their exports a better shot?
Vietnam is devaluing their currency
What is his take on the open capital account that the BSP employs to encourage domestic enterprise to borrow foreign savings?
What about his take on a genuine
Mar is a university trained neo-liberal technocrat in investment banking.
Most of these guys have had to go back to their drawing boards as their governments have had to bail them out recently.
Whatever they took up over the last twenty years have now blown up in their faces.
He has had no real lengthy experience in his own field with any major company of standing.
He presented himself as as an equilibrium efficiency ideologue for the last 10 years.
The U.S. Federal Government has blown up globalization. A tectonic shift has occurred.
You want to talk about birth control and change!!!!
So this pretty boy wants to be President….
Touché JAG. Investment banking. Ouch!
I feel like it is one those food media events. They invite you for free food and expect you to have a “favorable review me” in your blog as a token of gratitude for being invited.
For some, it is just like shopping…buying the first item that you see…not aware that there are more to choose from. sheesh
For some, it is just like dating…marrying the first guy he/she meets because he feels elated for being included in the short list.
This is one guy I am scared about…easily swayed, easily influenced but he is no influential blogger. Do you think the endorsement is appreciated by the people behind the informal
press conference?
Read the post clearly. No one is endorsing him just yet. Not this writer just yet.
Ding,
I am not referring to you.
but the purpose of the meeting up with the political hopeful is achieved…the reviewme portion.
Re:
Mar projected gave this writer a hint of the following:
• He’ll tangle with the Catholic Church on the reproductive health issue and on population control
• He will be open to continue peace talk with Moro rebels but will draw the line on any attempt to dismember the Republic.
• The Constitution will be inviolable even under martial law situation.
• GMA should stand trial for alleged crimes.
• The possible grant of pardon to GMA if she is convicted will be addressed only if and when the question materializes.
a hint? Why does he not come out openly and declare these as his?
_________________________________________________________
GMA should stand trial for alleged crimes.
• The possible grant of pardon to GMA if she is convicted will be addressed only if and when the question materializes.
___________________________________________________________
This is a smack of vindictiveness and not of statesmanship. The political machinery had spoken already that GMA is not guilty of impeachable offense when the House threw out the complaint against her.
If he has some reservations about the botched impeachment, he should do something about it while GMA is still in power. To do her in when she was already out of power and while he is in power as President is like a grown up man picking a fight against a child.
Here I doubt his sincerity. I know that once GMA is out of power, Mar Roxas would not press any charge against her when he becomes President. The line above is just to placate the anti-GMA and hope that the line can translate some votes needed for his election.
If he is sincere about his statement, then Mar Roxas do not have the political maturity to be President. A trial of GMA after she is out of power will not be the same as the trial of Erap after he was replaced by GMA.
The jueteng payola brought about by Singson expose leads the trail to Malacanang doorstep while all the hush-hush over the ZTE-Broadband deal only speculates that Mr. Abalos’ would-be take includes that of FG and GMA. And this project was abandoned precisely because of the scandal brought about by Lozada’s expose. The same way the JOc-Joc fetlizer scam. The fraud was uncovered but that FG-GMA were involved in the scam were all speculations and all Congress did was to refer the matter to the Ombudsman to prosecute Joc-Joc.
The Mindanao Peace Process which according to the other corrupt branch of government is unconstitutional will provide the least argument for GMA prosecution when she is out of power. The MOA-AD was also abandoned precisely because it was too controversial.
GMA’s actions over ZTE and the MOA-AD showed her sensitivity to public opinion and she was not afraid to abandon those projects if given the input that those were unpopular to her constituency.
That putative presidential wannabee according to Ding, from my perspective lacks the political maturity of GMA.
But do not get me wrong. I am no longer a fan of GMA when she pardoned Martinez, one of Ninoy’s assasins, Erap so she can get the sympathy of the urban poor that are pro-Erap, and Teehankee because one of her cabinet official happens to be the brother of the convicted Teehankee.
I am looking at GMA from a broader spectrum and not from my personal bias.
Its HIPOCRICY…plain ang simple.
Amen.
Sir Ding, I am truly honored (and lucky) to have been trained by someone like you. Salamat po, uli sa lahat lahat!
I think that if only to situate one’s argument, one does not have to draw an autobiographical sketch of himself to “discuss” the man, subject of too many blogs already that generally did not make much dent, intellectually.
I am beginning to suspect that a growing number of bloggers to FV have just begun to patronize Mar Roxas to pose themselves as though they were the man’s spokespersons. Why this?
Writers should not be pooled together in one restaurant and given free food as they tend to reintroduce the same dish to other readers. On the subliminal plane, it is like a recruitment to the Mar’s media bureau has just taken place.
Pass the other dish, will you?
Sir,
Your rush to judgment is unfair. Iut may please you to know I know who YOU are and perhaps you will clearly understand that the reference to how I know Mar is intended to be fullr transparent as Marck Rimorin suggested FV members to do. I am disappointed that you think otherwise, Manong.
Ms. Cat,
You have my apologies.
JF,
You are a credit to the craft we both love with a passion, no matter how imperfect we may be.
But growth and maturation only stops when we fool ourselves into thinking we have it all figured out. Let’s do Starbucks soon :)
A further rejoinder Manong ‘Karlpopper’ if may care to immerse yourself in FV’s body of work, you may discover we continue to canvass our readers preferences for 2010. Your insult us by insinuating we can be bought with food. That’s entirely below even your own belt, Manong.