So as expected, Pres. Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III finally endorsed Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas to be the standard bearer of the Liberal Party (LP) for the up and coming 2016 Presidential elections. P-Noy gave Mar Roxas his marching orders… to continue the reforms that he has done with the Straight Path or Daang Matuwid programs. Well, to the folks loyal to the Yellow ribbon… they will kneel in the altar of political convenience with their Daang Matuwid programs. But for the rest of the Philippines, this straight path is written with crooked lines!
Speaking of the straight path, delicadeza dictates that Sec. Mar Roxas immediately resign from his post as DILG Secretary. But as of press time, he hasn’t done so. Perhaps we should inform the folks espousing Daang Matuwid what delicadeza is all about… it is not using your position in government to advance your political agenda.
Let me remind you of what happened to Don Sergio Osmeña, that great Cebuano statesman who during the first elections after the end of World War II lost to the grandfather of Sec. Mar Roxas, when Filipinos should have been grateful to him for keeping the nation intact even in exile while the Philippines was occupied by the Japanese Imperial Forces.
As written in the two-volume biography of Don Sergio Osmeña authored by Vicente Albano Pacis who wrote that Don Sergio did not campaign in that Presidential race because he did not want to use the powers of Malacañang to promote his political interest. People today would call him a fool for what he did… but this is why we Filipinos, especially us Cebuanos put the name of Don Sergio Osmeña as one of the greatest Filipino statesmen. Don Sergio Osmeña may have lived in a different era…but to my recollection, the rules governing delicadeza hasn’t changed. So Sec. Mar we demand your resignation immediately!
As for P-Noy, let me say it loud and clear that his plan to personally campaign for Sec. Mar Roxas is a sign of lack of delicadeza. If indeed the Filipino people want Mar Roxas to be President of this nation, let him win on his own accord. If the President campaigns for him, he would be using the vast powers of Malacañang to the disadvantage of the others who would also be running for President. So again we ask… is delicadeza being practiced by the people espousing the Straight Path?
Meanwhile in Cebu, no one was cheering when P-Noy endorsed Sec. Mar Roxas for the simple reason that Cebu under the Aquino Presidency got zero infrastructure in the last five years. The only Cebuanos cheering for Mar Roxas are his Liberal Party (LP) members like Cebu Governor Hilario “Jun Jun” Davide III and Sec. Rene Almendras. Yet despite the fact that P-Noy won (via the hated PCOS) in Cebu during the 2010 Presidential elections, none of the Cebuano politicians who exhorted Cebuanos to vote for P-Noy had the guts to use their closeness to the President to give Cebu the infrastructure development that we deserved!
Contrast this to P-Noy’s predecessor, former Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo who gave Cebu City the South Road Project (SRP), which has promoted the economic growth of the southern part of Cebu City. Before the SRP… all economic developments in Cebu City was focused in the north. So if you ask me, what are the chances of Sec. Mar Roxas in Cebu? Let me say it loud and clear… he will have a difficult time explaining why under the Aquino Presidency Cebu was neglected.
Perhaps the biggest negative for Sec. Mar Roxas was the slap on the face of Cebuanos that P-Noy gave when he was in Mactan last June 29 for the groundbreaking of Terminal 2 of the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA), now under the new management of the Megawide/GMR consortium that paid P14.4 billion for the 25-year lease of MCIA. In his speech, P-Noy revealed that these monies would be put into the National Treasury so it can be used for other gov’t projects.
Ask yourselves…would you agree for Imperial Manila to lease your car for 25 years and yet you cannot use the rent money that they paid for your car? I don’t think so! This is why people are talking seriously about Federalizing the Philippines as a way to get rid of the greed of Imperial Manila and these talks are not just happening in Cebu, but to many areas in the country that can no longer fathom Imperial Manila’s control over them.
Sure, Mar Roxas may have integrity, but to many of us, electing Sec. Mar Roxas, he is going to be a clone of P-Noy and to Cebuanos, it would mean another six years of infrastructure starvation… thanks to Liberal Party members like Gov. Davide who cannot even influence the powers-that-be to give Cebu the infrastructure we deserve! So good luck Sec. Mar Roxas!
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