If popularity surveys are to be believed, Presidential candidate Mar Roxas is not very popular among the voters. He has consistently landed on the 4th spot in most of the surveys conducted since the first popularity surveys were commissioned for these Presidential Elections. He is even behind Vice President Jejomar Binay despite the latter being subject to months of negative propaganda by members of the Liberal Party to which Roxas belongs.
Mar Roxas held key positions in the Aquino government but wasn’t effective.
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In other words, Roxas was already in powerful enough positions to effect change and implement some of his ideas but he failed to do so. He could have done more considering BS Aquino made an informal promise to Roxas at the start that the latter would play an important role in his Presidency, sort of like the President’s right-hand man. This was some kind of consolation prize after Roxas agreed to put aside his Presidential ambitions to give way to a more popular BS Aquino back in 2010 and especially after losing in his Vice Presidential bid. Furthermore, both Roxas and BS Aquino have a strong family heritage in the Liberal Party stretching back to the early postwar years and, therefore, are like family. Unfortunately, the bond between the two is the reason Roxas’s bid for the Presidency is failing once again.
Because Roxas cannot publicly criticize BS Aquino for his government’s failures, many see Roxas as impotent and a weakling. The voters who are tired of the current government want someone new and effective, not someone who promises to continue the same things.
Why would they vote for Roxas when he could not even improve the appalling traffic situation in major Manila roads nor provide better public transport services while he was in charge of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC)? Roxas left a sorry legacy to be inherited by his unfortunate successor, current DOTC Secretary Jun Abaya. Nonetheless, Abaya went on to run with that and oversee further deterioration of the Metro Rail Transit system under his watch. Abaya’s role in mishandling of the MRT maintenance is huge according to Philstar columnist Jarius Bondoc:
The other sleaze began in Aug. 2015 and was consummated in Jan. 2016. In utter secrecy Abaya negotiated a P4.25-billion three-year maintenance of MRT-3. Exposed in this column that he was rigging the talks for Korea’s Busan Transport Corp. and four unknown but supposedly highly capitalized Filipino principals, he brought the final price down to P3.88 billion. Nothing for the Filipino people to be thankful for that, because Busan easily can walk out of the deal, especially when sued for dummying. Despite its P350-billion capital, it owns only four percent of the joint venture, while the four dummies, with just a little over P1 billion combined, control 96 percent. The four – a condo constructor, an agricultural supplier, a general merchandiser, and a plumber – have no experience in railway. They are the newest fronts of Abaya’s favorite LP member Marlo dela Cruz, who before this had wangled P1.86 billion from MRT-3 without maintaining it. Vitangcol swears that Rapanut brokered Busan’s participation too.
It seems all these years that Roxas, then Abaya, were in charge of the MRT, they wasted their time trying to negotiate a deal for contractors who would get paid for doing hardly any maintenance on the MRT. Abaya has been lucky so far that the MRT problems have not resulted in passenger casualties specially whenever trains stop in between stations, when the doors don’t shut while the train is moving, and that time when the train derailed and jumped off the tracks. Abaya has been lucky that the commuters who wait for hours while enduring heat, humidity and sometimes monsoon rains just to get a ride on the MRT bear with the situation because the poor souls need their jobs to be able to meet their basic necessities in life. Abaya is disgraceful for taking advantage of the public’s “patience” while Roxas’s boss BS Aquino was too disconnected from reality to fire Abaya for his negligence and Roxas for laying the foundation for the MRT debacle. All of them still think they have done a great job for the public.
Similarly, why would Filipino voters vote for Roxas when his performance in his last major role as head of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) was a disgrace? His true character was unraveled during the height of super typhoon Yolanda. His arrogance was even broadcast to the international community while he was being interviewed by CNN’s foreign correspondent Andrew Stevens as mentioned in my previous article:
At one point during the interview, Roxas was arguing over the treatment of dead bodies left rotting on the roads. Stevens pointed out that every day, he sees the same decomposing bodies when he passes by the same road on the way to the city. But Roxas vehemently denied they were the same bodies, stopping short of calling Stevens a liar. The DILG Secretary showed his arrogance in that instance. Suffice to say, it is evident that it would be another colossal mistake if he becomes the next President. Korina Sanchez as the next First Lady doesn’t sit well with a lot of people either, specially since she is beginning to show signs of irrational behavior. Another CNN journalist can attest to this.
The way Roxas kept interrupting Stevens during the interview gave viewers the impression that he is not a people person. His attitude was like “I already know what you are getting at but let me correct you now…”. Likewise, his use of banal metaphors to describe their relief efforts can be interpreted as an attempt to distract from the real issue. At one point he said that the government only set aside pails of water not realizing they needed a swimming pool of water. As if that actually excuses the government’s lack of foresight.
Stevens seems to share other international media correspondents’ observations and pointed out to Roxas the apparent lack of order in distributing relief goods. While he acknowledged what Roxas was trying to say — that the government could not handle the initial response — Stevens couldn’t help but remind Roxas that it has already been a week and yet the victims of the typhoon still beg for water from him and his crew.
Stevens appeared frustrated over not getting an accurate assessment of the relief and rescue efforts from Roxas considering they were both in the disaster zone. It was as if they were both seeing the same thing – chaos, survivors begging for food and water and dead bodies lying around – except that the DILG secretary still insisted that the situation was under control.
Roxas’s recent attempt at revising the accounts as the tragedy unfolded through a comic book portraying him as a “hero” is an insult to the over 6000 people who died and countless who are still unaccounted for. The survivors know the truth and Roxas and his public relations people cannot hide it by glossing over the pain the suffering the victims are still feeling now particularly since a lot of them still live temporary bunk houses.
It’s not enough that Roxas is perceived as a “decent” guy by those close to him. He has to be a people person too. Since only those loyal to the Liberal Party are into him, he won’t make it to Malacanang. It’s not enough that he has grand plans for the Philippines. If you think about it, it’s only recently that Roxas has become vocal about his plans. He now says his vision is to build a high-speed train and put order to traffic. Some people can be forgiven for saying his vision will be like his comic book — they will remain on the drawing board.
Yes, family and friends in the business community Roxas is a part of will likely thwart the implementation of his “vision”. They will fight for the right to get awarded with contracts to supply and manage government projects. Because Roxas has to please his “friends” in the business community, negotiations alone could take the entire six years of his term. The voters are wise not to vote for Mar Roxas.
In life, things are not always what they seem.
Even if they somehow won due to the magic of manipulating the numbers, you can bet people will not take that crap sitting down. So yeah, poor guy. Damned if does, damned if he doesn’t.
Pilipinos should put up a revolutionary government if they want a change and scrapped all these oldies running the country and all its cabinets. the yellows is setting up a martial law regime and might start in mindanao. the youth didn’t know that ‘PDP-LABAN’ where duterte is, is a political party of cory. what a stage show they’re doing. and kuya jojo, hit the admin with hacienda luisita issue and the people will believed you’re one opposition.
RCBC owns part of hacienda luisita land to save it from land distribution.
JANUARY 15, 2009 · 2:26 AM ↓ Jump to Comments
Presence of RCBC inside Hacienda Luisita, a puzzle, says sugar workers’ group
Presence of RCBC inside Hacienda Luisita, a puzzle, says sugar workers’ group
Sugar worker groups Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) and the United Luisita Workers Union (ULWU) on Thursday said they were puzzled with the presence of security guards employed by Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) inside the 6,453-hectare sugar estate Hacienda Luisita owned by the family of former President Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino.
According to UMA information officer Jay Calaguing, the RCBC took over 20 hectares in Barangay Cut-Cut and the commercial bank had been telling the people that the 20-hectares were foreclosed because of the Cojuangco’s failure to pay their debts to RCBC.
Calaguing said the RCBC detailed a security unit preventing the people to cultivate the lands up to 100 hectares in the boundary of Barangay Cut-Cut and Texas.
The UMA information officer added that aside from RCBC, several banks have also filed petitions questioning the bungkalan campaign of sugar workers and poor farmers inside Hacienda Luisita so they could appropriate the sugar lands inside the Cojuangco estate as payments for the Cojuangco’s existing debts with them.
“Something fishy is going on. This is part of the sinister plot to stop the sugar workers and poor farmers from reclaiming their land rights to Hacienda Luisita lands. All kinds of maneuvers are being orchestrated by the Cojuangco family to stop the campaign for land, food and justice,” Calaguing said.
The 6,453-hectare Hacienda Luisita was exempted from distribution under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). Instead, the sprawling sugar estate was placed under the Stock Distribution Option (SDO), a non-land transfer scheme, which converted sugar workers into stock holders and daily workers receiving P 9.50 per day without any share in the gross sales.
Calaguing said Hacienda Luisita farmworkers continue to cultivate more than 1,800 hectares of the hotly disputed sugar estate outside the framework of the 20-year old CARP, whom he said was bogus, bankrupt, pro-landlord and anti-farmer.
“The key to this success story is the determination of Hacienda Luisita farmworkers to challenge and fight the Stock Distribution Option scheme legitimized by the bogus CARP. Now, the farmworkers and poor farmers of Hacienda Luisita are reaping the fruits of their labor,” he said.
“The farmworkers and poor farmers are planting various crops in more than 1,800 hectare occupied by farmworkers like rice and vegetables. We are encouraging more farmers to join and form themselves into cooperation units to be able to cover other hectares for their livelihood. This is peasant class power in full swing,” UMA said.
UMA said the current “bungkalan” campaign has already benefited 838 families or roughly 1,676 individuals spread in the barangays of Malapacsiao (244.5 hectares), Asturias (209.93 hectares), Bantog (258 hectares), Cut-Cut (275.9 hectares), Balite (153.4 hectares), Mutrico (248 hectares), Pando (163 hectares), Texas (140 hectares), Pasajes (60 hectares) and Parang (51.5 hectares).
On the other hand, UMA is also supporting the passage of Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB) or House Bill 3059 authored by the late Anakpawis party list Rep. Crispin Beltran and co-authored by his successor Anakpawis party list Rep. Rafael Mariano, Bayan Muna party list Reps. Satur Ocampo and Teddy Casiño and Gabriela Party list Reps. Liza Maza and Luzviminda Ilagan.
Under GARB, Hacienda Luisita will be distributed for free to farmworkers and poor farmers and with guaranteed security of tenure and strong support mechanisms to make the 6,453 sugar estate productive and responsive to the need of farmworkers, poor farmers and the Filipino public in general.
RCBC was in the recent scandal pertaining to a multi million U.S. dollar, transfer fraud. The RCBC Bank is a tool of the Aquino-Cojuangco fraud schemes.
They did it on DAP, PDAF, Pork Barrels; etc…now , they are doing the stealing on international level…thru banks…
…and they gonna use that for expenses in the 2016 election campaigns by the Aquino-Cojuangco controlled parties namely LP & NPC.
And to make an add to the salt of the injury, if you heard right now about the news in Kidapawan, North Cotabato that 3 protesters died & 9 are injured brought about by the firing of PNP to the protesters mostly the farmers that they demand for the release of $14 B fund as a calamity relief to their farms brought about the effects of El Nino there & they’re questioning on where those funds as what PNoy had promised to them 2 years ago went and those poor farmers are on a dire situation?
A Guy can be “decent”…but, can be also, a Crook. Chicago Mafia Boss, Al Capone , was very decent. However, he was the worst crook, who ever walked on this Planet Earth.
“Crookedness with Self-Respect”…and “Duplicity with Honor”…these are the trademarks of Mar Roxas, Aquino, Abad, Abaya, and the rest of the YellowTard Hordes.
It is good that voters now, can “smell” the “stink”, on them. The same “stink” that: Aquino, Abad, Abaya, and the rest of their YellowTard cahoots have.
“A Guy can be “decent”…but, can be also, a Crook.”
I’ve seen a lot of these fuckers in the Failippines.
They’re like tiyanaks. They pretend to be pitiful that you wanna go near them and hug them until they bite and kill you. failipinos always fell by hook, line & sinker.
Mar was stuck from the get go. He cannot bite the hand that feeds him (even if he personally disagreed).
Good you highlighted the pathetic metro train system Ilda. The last time I rode the MRT, when the doors opened I was surprised to see the passenger at the edge of the sardine-can packed coach holding up a large section just above the door that was falling from the ceiling.
LRT maintenance may have been sleeping on the job for not screwing this section back. Or they just didn’t have any chance to do maintenance due to the utter lack of coaches they could field into day-in/day-out operations.
PH has been in a dismal mess under these squandering LP politicians and PNoy appointees. Hopefully we’ll get to see a fresh new set of public officials coming in after the elections – at least not the LP dim-wit flavor.
I just have to hand it to Mar and his team for doing us all a favor by doing everything in their power to keep his survey rank pegged at No.4. If there’s one thing Mar is good at – it’s digging his own grave.
It seems that the Liberal Party is on a panic mode right now & Mar might loose on his presidential race. Sige Mar, engot pa more!
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/admin-now-panic-mode-says-000000966.html
To fulfill one’s vision, a true great leader must have hindsight, insight and foresight.