Judy Araneta Roxas, widow of Sen. Gerardo Roxas, has confirmed reports that her son, Koalisyon ng Karanasan at Katapatan para sa Kinabukasan (K-4) senatorial candidate Manuel "Mar" Roxas II, has indeed been dating ABS-CBN broadcaster Korina Sanchez.
Mrs. Roxas, however, said the rumors came first. "The mother is the last to know," she told The STAR in an interview at the commemoration of the 56th death anniversary of her father-in-law, President Manuel Roxas.
While she said her son and Sanchez indeed "go out" on dates, she added that she will respect her son’s decisions concerning his love life.
Born May 13, 1957, Roxas has been tagged one of the country’s most eligible bachelors. Besides being the grandson of a president, the son of a senator and a scion of the wealthy Araneta clan, he served as trade and industry secretary until he resigned to join the senatorial race.
In a recent survey, Roxas topped the list of senatorial candidates, pushing movie actor and erstwhile Videogram Regulatory Board (VRB) chairman Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr., his colleague in the K-4 ticket, down to the second slot.
The good news for Mar’s female fans is that Mrs. Roxas believes the relationship between her son and Sanchez has not grown "that serious yet."
However, she refused to comment further on the matter, saying, "I don’t want to be a meddling mother, so let’s leave it at that."
Despite the fact Mar topped a recent survey of senatorial candidates, Mrs. Roxas reminded his friends and supporters that the survey "is just paper and we have to make that reality," as she urged them to continue campaigning for her son’s victory at the polls.
"Mar is really an economist at heart and he is always interested to find out the cost of things, the market prices. The (Roxas family) cook reports to him everyday on the prices of commodities in the market," she said.
Mrs. Roxas said Mar learned to enjoy comparing the prices of goods as a boy, when her husband would take the young Mar with him to visit markets at the Araneta Center in Quezon City.
During his stint at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Roxas continued to make regular visits to wet markets to keep abreast of any changes in the prices of basic commodities, earning the moniker "Mr. Palengke" in the process. This title now serves as his campaign nickname.
"He interviews our cook every day (about the prices of commodities). Our cook tells him all those things, any changes in the prices. As part of his job then as trade and industry secretary, he had to keep the prices down. He actually went to the markets," Mrs. Roxas said.
She added that her son never mentioned any ambitions of following in the footsteps of his paternal grandfather into Malacañang.
However, she added that politics "is probably in his blood, as he has been exposed to public service through the (many government) positions he has held."
She also said Mar and her other two children are "very much in tune with the values of President Roxas — his integrity, his being a hard worker, his patriotism, his love for country and service to the people. I am sure those are present in Mar."