EDITORIAL - Roxas tarred even more by Mamasapano

He may not have realized it yet, but the testimony of Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas last Thursday at the Senate hearing on the Mamasapano incident may prove to be another nail driven into his political coffin. In that hearing, Roxas said he did not tell the president about the evolving Mamasapano crisis because he did not consider it significant at the time to be worthy of the president's attention.

The president of course already knew, as a video tape of him speaking on the subject would show. But let us assume Roxas did not lie under oath at the Senate hearing in order to protect the president. Let us take his word for it and assume he really did not think the evolving Mamasapano crisis was worthy of the ears of the president.

What then does that make of Roxas? Or, to put it more into context, what does that make of Roxas as president, since that is a position he has been coveting since 2010? What kind of president will that make of someone who does not consider information about his own troops being pinned down by enemy fire as significant enough to at least discuss with his security aides.

Roxas at the time was with the president in Zamboanga along with defense secretary Voltaire Gazmin and armed forces chief Gregorio Catapang. Never mind Gazmin and Catapang because the beleaguered troops were not their men. But Roxas is the DILG secretary. The policemen being slaughtered one by one by the enemy were his own men. When your own men are being shot at, that is not a trivial matter.

If Roxas cannot man up to the president who is a brother Filipino about a matter involving the lives of his own men, how can he man up to the leaders of other nations who may not be as accommodating and understanding once he becomes president? And if he cannot appreciate what is important to his specific department, how can he appreciate the importance of a wide array of things that become the concern of every president if he becomes one?

But it was very clear at the Senate hearing that Roxas was being evasive and not exactly truthful. Are these character flaws Filipinos would be willing to ignore or tolerate in Roxas? Would Filipinos want their next president to be evasive and not exactly truthful? In balancing personal friendship and national interest, where do you think Filipinos would want their president on the scales?

The next election that Roxas is so eagerly looking forward to is still a good year away in 2016. There is enough time for Roxas to make the right choices, that is, if he knows how to make them, a not very encouraging proposition given the circumstances just enumerated. And the prospects are indeed bleak as Mamasapano can only make it worse for many, including Roxas, if he does not know how to play his cards down the homestretch.