Mar Roxas is a worse sort of politician than his boss, President Benigno Simeon ‘BS’ Aquino III. It was bad enough that BS Aquino ran for and won the presidency on the back of a pedigree platform. His being the son of Filipino “martyrs” Ninoy Aquino and Cory Aquino was his only pitch to Filipino voters. He neither had a platform nor the statesmanship qualities to unify Filipinos behind him and lead them to a common goal.
But Roxas, on the other hand, is a mere puppet. He fully takes his cue from President BS Aquino’s Daang Matuwid (“straight path”). But he offers nothing original, nothing fresh, and nothing specifically his own.
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The trouble with Filipinos is that they don’t expect much of their politicians — only that they be “honest”. While that sort of low-bar approach to evaluating their political options may seem to be safe, it has proven to be ineffectual. Proof of how idiotic “honesty platforms” are is in the way BS Aquino — who was elected on the basis of his prayerfulness and supposed lack of criminal record — all but proved to be otherwise. BS Aquino worked with his henchman Budget Secretary Butch Abad to illegally appropriate “unspent” budget to his pet Disbursement Acceleration Program, colluded with Kuala Lumpur to sell off a resource-rich chunk of Mindanao to Islamic terrorists, and coddled crooked cabinet secretaries and government agency heads even whilst they were found to have applied criminal neglect to the way they managed government resources and facilities.
A habit of voting for “honest” politicians is symptomatic of a society utterly bankrupt of imagination. In a sense, Mar Roxas epitomises that abject lack of imagination on a national scale. He is nothing more than BS Aquino’s “Mini Me” — like the midget minion of Doctor Evil (played by Mike Myers) in the hit cinematic franchise Austin Powers. He is politically identical to Aquino — but proportionally small and stunted in stature.
A vote for Mar Roxas will simply be a vote for the same tired old Yellow rhetoric of the Aquino-Cojuangco clan-controlled Liberal Party of the Philippines. Worse, the Roxas term will be nothing more than a direct analogue of the Aquino regime. Whilst BS Aquino spent the last six years trying to put — and keep — former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in jail, Roxas will likely spend his term as president trying to keep BS Aquino out of prison for the crimes of plunder and treason committed in his day.
Is there nothing more Filipinos can aspire for than to vote on the basis of a spurious claim to “honesty”? Surely there’s more to being a president than being “honest”. Honesty should be a presumed given, and not put forth as a virtue that differentiates candidates. All candidates should be honest. It’s supposed to be part of fundamental character.
Indeed, the reason Filipinos are suckers for Honesty Platforms is because theirs is a society where honesty is a bonus rather than a given. That’s sad. We realise that ours is a society where everyone is presumed a cheat and a crook and that the onus to prove otherwise is always top of mind in every Filipino when relating with one another.
Look no further than the premiere international airport — the ironically-named Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). Passengers now have to resort to shrinkwrapping their luggage and having their lawyers on speed dial lest they find themselves a victim of the laglag-bala (“bullet planting”) standard operating procedure there.
A vote for Mar Roxas will be a vote for another six years of this dreadful status quo — one where a culture of crime makes “honesty platforms” so ridiculously seductive to crime- and corruption-weary voters.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
Almost always, it’s a choice with a “but”:
a. honest but incompetent
b. experienced but corrupt
c. winnable but inexperienced
Filipinos will be wishing for the stars to get an excellent person for president when simply finding even a normal person is already so elusive.
Now that “abnoy” is the new normal in the eyes of the masses, we’re in for a long and bumpy ride.
Otherwise, just fasten your seat belts on your flight out of this country to a place with greener pastures – that is, if you’re lucky to get past “laglag bala” airport.
Roxas is no political leader. Even Mayor Duterte has misgivings with his performance in Yolanda Tragedy. chosen by Liberal Party para lang may malagay sa Malacanang.
How stupid can Mar get. He won’t think outside the box. None of his vision, knowledge and capabilities took part in his campaign ~proof that he has none~ to think that he’s a graduate of an Ivy League university, a successful investment banker and already worked in the government for 20+ years. What if he’s no chum of PNoy or any LP officials? What if there’s no Daang Matuwid? He is what? Mar for nothing? As what was highlighted many times over, PNoy’s good grades were only due to GMA’s programs that thank god he has no way of changing thus he can only continue. His Daang Matuwid whose main aim is to subdue corruption only put SELECT corrupts or his enemies to jail due to his selective justice, padrino system, pay-for-vote guilty verdict in lower and upper house (and why is it that the President needed to bribe for or manipulate a trial? Won’t justice work without him? Aah, he won’t get the result he promised without his manipulation because he knew something’s terribly wrong with our justice system which his Daang Matuwid tainted more instead of pressed with integrity). Then his government devise the unconstitutional DAP as response to Million People March against corruption and pork barrel misuse. His Daang Matuwid is just responding to problem only when it presented itself to be noticed, he have to be called out to treat these problems before he do anything about it and even then his remedy is nothing but a band-aid solution. What is it with Daang Matuwid that Mar Roxas wanted to continue and bank on the 6 year-term as President?
Choosing to be incompetent or choosing to be a mini-me of an incompetent – Mar’s two choices.
Nothing is more certain than that a general profligacy and corruption of manners make a people ripe for destruction. A good form of government may hold the rotten materials together for some time, but beyond a certain pitch, even the best constitution will be ineffectual, and slavery must ensue.
Mar does not care if his strategic and tactical positioning during the campaign looks so stupid. He is already convinced he will win no matter what. I heard their war chest is mind boggling, and that is all that matters to Mar now, and the LP. That is how he has become so condescending.
If they lose, it will also be mind boggling poetic justice for the people. PNoy will be in deep depression, there will be no need to indict him for his crimes; the depression will already kill him.
Mar Roxas came from the Oligarchy. He is from the rich Araneta family. He is nothing, but a “clone” of Aquino.
Roxas, honest? Where are the relief funds of the Yolanda Typhoon reliefs, contributed by foreign donors? They disappeared like “magic”…
Mar Roxas cannot even manage a simple Typhoon relief program. How can he manage the Republic of the Philippines? It will be the same old, patronage politics; same old incompetence; same old DAP,PDAF, Pork Barrel Bribery,…etc…
The Roxas dude, is not offering anything new and exciting…
ROXAS, PANAKIP BUTAS!
the guy can’t even come up with an original slogan for himself..so what do you expect his government will be like but “showbiz”..all for show and no substance…here’s a scenario if roxas wins…no indictments in the PDAF and DAP scams…no investigations on the whereabouts of Yolanda contributions…no closure of the SAF 44 case…no one gets their comeuppance when roxas becomes president and the KKKK will laugh all the way to the bank
“A habit of voting for “honest” politicians is symptomatic of a society utterly bankrupt of imagination.” by Benign0
IMAGINATION plays an important role in Arts/Drawing/Design/Planning/Construction or Engineering activity (painting, sculpture, civil, structure, architecture, interior, invention, etc.) and especially NATION BUILDING.
http://www.successconsciousness.com/index_000007.htm
Work Experience/Exposure will teach you to be more observant, improves your imagination/vision, analytical thinking, common sense and creativity.
Mar had many exposure or opportunities to directly handle different post in government – DTI, DOTC and DILG. But Mar’s involvement clearly resulted to nothing and left no Legacy behind.
Clear Example: DOTC remains/continues to dysfunctional.
In fairness to Roxas, he may be one of the “lesser evils” but it is not enough to provide a cure to our country’s ills. He may have been a good banker but he lacks the ability to become a good and effective government official. To work in the government means serving the people, first and foremost. How can he serve when he remains a puppet of the government? How can he when he cannot even voice out his own ideas and opinions without it being an echo of someone else’s? How can he lead this nation to a better place when he lacks sympathy for the Filipino people? Judging by how he handled the disaster brought about by Yolanda and now, the “Laglag-Bala” scam, he has abandoned our fellowmen more than once. Pakitang-tao lang pala ang pagiging “Mr. Palengke” niya.
His running mate is a shining example of a true servant to the Filipino people. Someone who has actually done things, no matter how small. It’s a shame that Leni Robredo agreed to being Roxas’ running mate. Roxas was an old friend of her late husband, Former Sec. Jesse Robredo. I hope that she made that choice not because of her personal ties to Roxas but because she truly wants to help our nation rise to its problems.
Well, I guess I was wrong in contemplating on giving Roxas another chance in next year’s elections.
Obviously, Mar Roxas is toeing the party line; and, his reasons are a matter of conjecture, or opinion, (depending on one’s perspective). To my mind, he is like a player in a losing team who is, (illogically), still ‘shaving points’; or, like a dutiful ‘chief mate’ who is willing to go down with his captain and the ship. He may actually be both of these images. He probably knows and accepts the flaws.. warts and all.. of his friend and superior, even as he appreciates the problems of the country; but, like a loyal servant to both, he soldiers on, engaging the ‘boss’ and ‘party’, while trying to mitigate negative results to the country. He might be thinking that loyalty to one’s superior, and service to the country are not mutually exclusive.
Loyalty and service are, indeed, very rare commodities nowadays.The polar opposites..’balimbing’ and ‘kurakot’.. are evidently the default inclination of today’s politicians. You wouldn’t strain your eyes to go looking for dishonest officials. They are all over the place. You would, though, if you tried to look for honest ones. They are as scarce as tits on a boar hog.
I am not sure that these virtues.. loyalty and service.. will get Mar Roxas very far. It could very well sink him and his ambitions for good. Perhaps this might be a price one has to pay if only to prove that some ‘good’ still lingers.