Mar says he has no plans for 2013, 2016

MANILA, Philippines - Transportation and Communications Secretary Manuel Roxas II said he has no plans for the national elections next year and in 2016, stressing he would rather focus on his current job.

“I have no plans for 2016 and 2013, I am focused on my job and on performing my duty at the DOTC, to provide safe and convenient transportation to the public,” Roxas told reporters who asked him about his political plans at a joint DOTC-Philippine Medical Association press briefing yesterday on anti-smoke belching.

Roxas, president of the administration Liberal Party, declined to talk about the party’s senatorial slate for the 2013 polls.

“There will be time for politics, there will be time for electoral exercise,” Roxas said in Filipino.

On Vice President Jejomar Binay’s forming a coalition with the group of former President Joseph Estrada and building up a Senate slate for 2013, Roxas said it’s Binay’s right to make his own political move.

“That’s their entitlement. Under our democracy, they have the right to do that,” Roxas said. Roxas ran for vice president in 2010 but lost to Binay.