Ma(r) of the Hour

Actually, of two-and-a-half hours.

Liberal Party vice presidential bet Sen. Mar Roxas sat with editors, columnists and reporters of The STAR past 9 p.m. one hot summer night, and was already the picture of a winner the minute he entered the conference room after a four-story climb to get to it. It was no sweat for the 52-year-old senator (who’s turning 53 next month) — he even had a 120/80 blood pressure reading to prove it.

With the music of Carlos Santana (which he said he could identify with) blaring from a videoke joint behind The STAR building in Port Area, Mar confidently answered the questions hurled at him, sensing banana peels thrown his way and deftly navigating around them. Relaxed, secure, and neither on the offensive nor defensive with regard to his political rivals, he only referred to his closest rival Loren Legarda when asked to comment on what she had earlier said about him (particularly that his running for vice president was an “exit plan” for him) during a similar forum in The STAR.

He dismissed the allegation. But he concurred with one thing that Loren had earlier told me — that his mom Judy Araneta Roxas and her late mom Bessie Bautista Legarda were the best of friends.

Otherwise, the only other politician Mar referred or alluded to extensively during the open forum was his running mate Sen. Noynoy Aquino.

The two-and-a-half hours were his time, and 20 points ahead with 43 percent of respondents going for him in the latest Pulse Asia survey, Mar knew it was best to stick to one topic: Mar Roxas, and no one else.

‘Ask Korina’

Many times, when the questions had to do with his personal life (like, “Do you snore?”), he would simply say, “Ask Korina.” Korina, of course, is his wife of six months, Korina Sanchez.

Korina answered this question in an article she penned for People Asia last December about her wedding day and the morning after. She wrote, “This is the same guy I was snoring with as soon as our backs hit the bed back home — on our honeymoon night. Mar always sleeps ahead, he’s much older, haha! That night I looked at him and I almost talked to myself saying, ‘If there were someone I’d rather snore with it would be you. On the first morning after, we woke up to look at each other and see if there were anyone whom I’d rather try this out with, it has to be you.’ Maybe telepathy woke him up a bit. Eyes closed, he was looking for my hand, we often sleep holding hands. Then he resumed snoring.”

He said he “loved” married life, and had put on weight since the wedding. He likes the idea of longer second honeymoon after the elections (they took a brief trip to Japan after their wedding) and hopes to have a baby soon with Korina. (Mar has a 16-year-old son, Paolo Gerardo). But as Korina once told this writer before her wedding, “One miracle at a time, okay?”

‘A connection’

To many, Mar’s finest hour was his decision to give up the presidential race in favor of Sen. Noynoy Aquino, despite having prepared for the presidential contest. He has no regrets about his decision.

“I was totally, wholly, buong pagkatao ko, was behind that decision. I am a believer in that decision whether or not Noy’s numbers are they are today, or less or more. This is the best thing that can happen to our country.”

“One side of me is this person who is looking at the presidency as a tool to make things happen,” says Mar. He remembers telling Noynoy after his mother Cory’s funeral and his own realization of the outpouring of support for Cory and what she stood for, “Sincerely, my end goal is to make things happen, and if to make things happen is more readily achieved through you rather than through me, I am open to that.”

“We were not strangers to each other. Both our parents (the late Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. and the late former President Cory Aquino and the late Sen. Gerry Roxas and Judy Araneta Roxas) were colleagues, anti-Marcos and at one point our fathers were rivals for the presidential nomination, the 1973 LP nomination. Our parents went through the same sacrifice. My parents went through Plaza Miranda. I saw my father go from the height of power to the wilderness. Even his phone calls to play golf were not returned.”

Thus, said Mar, it was easy for Noynoy and him to talk heart-to-heart, man-to-man.

“We had a commonality, a connection that enabled a frank and trustful dialogue not of two politicians but of two people who could say, this is in my heart. Now, I don’t want to make this sound like a romance... but we talked candidly and almost intimately about what our plans were, what our hopes were...”

 “At the end of the day,” continues Mar, “Noynoy was of a mind... he told me he wanted to carry on the torch and I told him if that’s what you’re ready to do, I’m ready to support you.”

Noynoy announced his decision on Sept. 9 last year, the 40th day after the death of Cory. Shortly after, Mar announced his decision to be Noy’s running mate. Since then, he has always led the surveys for vice presidential candidates if not by a mile then at least by a comfortable margin.

“I entered public service to make a contribution. My goal is to make a difference,” he stressed. When asked about the 2016 presidential polls, he shot back, “Did I ever mention 2016 in this entire interview?”

“My immediate agenda is getting Noy elected,” he said.

Mar told The STAR he has not asked and will not ask Noynoy for any Cabinet post if both of them win the elections.

But when asked what Cabinet position he would give Mar if they both win the polls, Noynoy earlier told this writer: “It’s Mar’s choice.”

His own Ma(r)

Mar is obviously committed to his standard bearer. In fact, he spent some of the time after the formal interview underscoring the good qualities of Noynoy and assuring those who had issues about an Aquino presidency that he would relay their concerns to Noynoy. He also revealed that Noynoy had the best advisers on many issues.

One of Mar’s closest advisers told me that the two are like brothers, “Mar sees Dinggoy (Mar’s late brother Capiz Rep. Dinggoy Roxas) in Noynoy and to Noynoy, Mar is the brother he never had.”

But I also sensed that Mar is serving notice this early that if elected vice president, he is not going to be a rubber-stamp of the President (and to him it was going to be Noynoy and refused to speculate otherwise), that he will cooperate but not hesitate to give the President his unvarnished opinion.

 He stressed that unlike in the US where the vice president is elected along with the President, the vice president in the Philippines has his own mandate. “Therefore his employer is the people, not the President.”

It’s a statement of fact and also of Mar’s own independence.

Mar Roxas is Number One in the vice presidential surveys, and once elected, he’s determined to truly be the country’s Number Two.

(You may e-mail me at [email protected])