The question of whether or not one should vote Mar Roxas President of the Philippines can be answered quite simply: DO NOT. Why? Because he fails to live up to his own platform of governance. According to a meme being distributed by his supporters, Roxas and his side-kick Leni Robredo supposedly live by a simple three-point campaign platform.
Here is why Mar Roxas fails to be consistent with each of these three points.
| SUPPORT INDEPENDENT SOCIAL COMMENTARY! Subscribe to our Substack community GRP Insider to receive by email our in-depth free weekly newsletter. Opt into a paid subscription and you'll get premium insider briefs and insights from us. Subscribe to our Substack newsletter, GRP Insider! Learn more |
* * *
Hindi bara bara
“a systematic approach to governance”
Part of being systematic in the way one governs — or, for that matter, even just manages — is to delegate tasks. Clearly, Mar Roxas cannot delegate. In various instances he is shown personally directing traffic under the rain, carrying around sacks of onions in a marketplace, motorbiking into the eye of a storm without a helmet, and even awkwardly attempting to hammer a nail into a school desk.
A chief executive who needs to personally oversee day-to-day tasks is not an effective manager. It indicates a lack of an ability to trust people under his administration who are charged with specific areas of responsibility.
Hindi patsamba
“strategies and plans based on accurate data and facts”
In the aftermath of the devastation wrought by super-typhoon Haiyan in late 2013, Roxas (who was, again, a cabinet secretary-level exec personally overseeing relief and recovery operations at Ground Zero) was interviewed by CNN International correspondent Andrew Stevens. Stevens had observed that days after the exit of Haiyan, decomposing bodies of its victims remained scattered all over the disaster area. Despite evidently being ignorant of the facts at hand, Roxas responded in an ill-informed and, worse, an arrogant manner…
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.
Roxas failed Management 101 at several levels. For one thing, instead of being on top of the situation, he preferred to be at ground level where things were a bit more dramatic for the cameras. This is what, for another thing, likely kept him in the dark. Commanders usually oversee their armies from a high vantage point while their foot soldiers on the battlefield each work on a need-to-know basis. In that instance, Roxas positioned himself at the wrong level of the situation and therefore did not have the right information to make the right decisions, take the right actions, and give Stevens the right answers.
Hindi pakitang-tao
“authentic, compassionate service to the Filipino people”
There really is no need to elaborate on this one. The hundreds of memes circulating the Net depicting Mar Roxas in various pretentious poses (to add to those cited earlier, posing on a block of ice, distributing relief goods to typhoon victims, personally attending to a scene-of-crime situation at an SM Mall) is proof that he suffers from that renowned Filipino condition, pakitang tao-itis. He just can’t help it. Perhaps because he lacks any real management chops he focuses instead on drama and, as an outcome of that, delivering small-time results.
Indeed, the assertion that he is “compassionate” in his “service” itself is debatable if one takes into account his behaviour towards staff of the presitigious Wack Wack Country Club where he was suspended in 2014 for viciously abusing a staff member there.
A club member, who asked not to be identified, said the board met Monday night and voted to suspend Roxas for two months after an investigation of the April 6 incident when Roxas purportedly screamed at club employees who insisted that he pay the green fee of a guest.
“Five [directors] voted to suspend him for two months while only one voted to simply reprimand him. Three [other directors] abstained from the vote while one was absent from the meeting,” the member said.
* * *
Why NOT Mar Roxas? Simple. If, as a mere cabinet secretary, Roxas already fails to lead by example and deliver significant results, then Roxas as President will almost certainly be a disaster for the Philippines.
So to all who plan to vote for Mar Roxas, isip isip muna. Do not participate in these critical democratic exercises the way certain non-thinking sectors of Philippine society do.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
Ateneo, are you listening?
Not to mention he asked for Arroyo to pardon Erap. Maybe he’ll do the same for good buddy BSA3.
I think Mar Roxas would make a good Presidential adviser, not a President. He is a pure thinker not a doer.
Oh yeah, here’s something about Leni Robredo’s policies. Reposting from someone’s Facebook wall, some words are not Tagalog: “…for those who dont know, Leni is the main author of Intensive land reform (rural and urban) which is already in the plenary. Meaning if you have 2 houses pwede kwaun sang govt ang isa or if your house is too big, basi garage kag kusina mo kwaun pa sa imo. So think twice kay basi ma communista na ta if you put too much power in the hands of the Lefts.”
I think I can understand some of the other parts: “Meaning if you have 2 houses the government can take it or if your house is too big, maybe (even) garage and kitchen they will take from you. So think twice because we might become communist if you put too much power in the hands of the Lefts.”
… and you forgot to mention that he is an ASS!
Mar probably wants to project himself as a leader who’s in the thick of the action, fighting at the battlefront. He must have forgotten what happened to Alexander the Great when he charged into an Indian city ahead of his troops.
Paano kung masagasaan siya ng bus habang nagpapa photo-op nag-didirect ng traffic? Edi patay na agad presidente! What a waste of millions spent on campaigning. Either way – Lugi ang LP, wala silang mapapalang ROI sa manok nilang pilay
Last resort is for LP is to activate plan-b in those hocus pcos machines programmed to read with bias those “Daang Matuwid”-labeled ballots. If the machines spit out “mar wins” as the final result, we already know what kind of chaos will happen next.
He is the complete opposite of those three points.
Every time he opens his mouth, all I can hear is ÿada yada yada, daan matuwid, yada yada.
Sa sampung sinabi, labing isa ang bola.
I wonder why so many people believe in what that idiot has to say.
RORO supporters are basically hypocrites who hate Duterte because he reminds them of their own balahura ways. Common guys, why do you think Duterte acts like that? He came from the same society that produced you. The only difference is that the man is not saddled by the weight of hypocrisy you dipshits practice on a daily basis.
Outrage at the guy cursing the pope? Way ta go for a bunch of parishioners who come to mass simply to ogle others and text while the priest is reading the homily.
Outrage at a supposed rape joke? Why, if a rape joke is considered a crime in this place nearly all heterosexual males (and a few females) at the age of 18-above would be behind bars.
All this Duterte outrage is the height of hypocrisy of the supposed “civil” society kuno.
So pretty please, SILENT MEDIOCRITY, with sugar on top, drop the “DISENTE” act. It’s nauseating.
Huh?
I was referring to Mar.
Yep, I basically just expounded on this:
Sorry bout that. Should have posted that as a separate comment and not as a reply. =)
I agree with Roxas-Robredo three-point platform. I believe they will live up to it. What I do not like about Mar Roxas is his First-Lady-in-Waiting Korina Sanchez. She will be the next Imelda Marcos.
Another issue I have with Mar Roxas why he left his lucrative job as “assistant vice president” in high-asset-only secretive Investment Bank to “serve the people of the Republic fo the Philippines”.
As an “investment banker” I believe he saw more opportunities as Philippine politician more lucrative than New York investment banker.
With Mar Roxas executive performance. I don’t believe, he has handled that Assistant Vice President position in an investment bank, in the U.S. He may had; but was fired, because of incompetence.
In U.S. banks; Vice Presidents are many. There is Vice President in every Department in the bank. If you cannot deliver, in a U.S. corporation. There is no path for you, but to be escorted to the door…You’re fired! Maybe, Mar Roxas took refuge here in the Philippines, after being fired in his position,in the U.S.; and entered politics…hoping it would be an easy work…
Let us Fire Him Again!, by not voting for him…
That is what I thought so, too! He was not a “vice-president” he was an “assistant vice-president” which is a dime a dozen in the U.S.
What bugs me if Mar Roxas relinquished and surrendered his presumptive “green card” or “citizenship” why is it his recent address-on-record was still Allen&Company in New York as of 2013 as searched thru CLEAR/Reuters?
Why was he using that company address while he was serving under Aquino?
The Filipinos should not worry about Mar Roxas. He is already irrelevant poll-wise. He is neck-on-neck with Santiago.
I am boycotting this election like before. I do not want to be complicit and accessory to the destruction of the Republic of the Philippines.
If you don’t vote, you are complicit as well. As the saying goes, every vote counts.
At least I do not have direct involvement …
No, but indirect involvement and involvement never the less.
If the wrong candidate wins because you did not vote for the right one than you are guilty!
For me the NON-Voters are just the worst. They are spineless creatures…, if you don’t have an opinion or don’t want to leave a footprint on this planet why not jump into a volcano. You’ll do us all a favor. One less mouth-breather.
Mar Roxas simply has no talent in management. Talent is inborn; you can learn it in school. However, in the real world. It is different; this is where your natural talent and instincts, come into play.
Mar Roxas cannot be “cool under fire”. He cannot handle stressful situations, like Aquino. This is shown in his handling of the Typhoon Yolanda Relief Efforts.
Instead of directing the relief operation; he used the tragedy as a Photo Opportunity, for his coming Presidential campaign. He played politics amidst the Relief Efforts. Refusing to distribute the relief goods; because the Mayor of the City, is from an opposing political party.
I ask this question; Mar Roxas: Did you pocket the missing Typhoon Yolanda Relief Funds? Why is it missing? Where is it?
Mar Roxas is simply the Poster Boy of Incompetence. Everything, he had managed were mismanaged. This bumbling fool/liar/thief is just a dimwit. Would you trust your future with this Clown?
There’s a “silent” group who’d answer ‘yes’ to that question. =)
Andrew Stevens?
Maybe you mean Anderson Cooper
Andrew Stevens and Anderson Cooper worked for CNN.
It’s easy to criticize someone who has been in senior public service posts for many years. Hence, there is no comparison between Mar and any of the other candidates in terms of the breath and depth of responsibility in government service. The closest would be Binay and we don’t have to get into the obvious anomalies of plunder that should jail Binay and his family for the rest of their lives. Poe is appropriately characterized as OJT, with Danding Cojuangco, Bobby Ongpin, Ramon Ang (if you think Mar is an asshole, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet compared to these ass wipes) as her mentors. A comparison with Duterte is like comparing a CFO or CIO with a line supervisor of a Fortune 500 company. Duterte’s recent appearance at the Makati Business Club exposed how utterly myopic and one-dimensional is the platform and approach of Duterte. Ok, peace and order is a critical component of a thriving economy but there’s plenty more to address, which Duterte has not even begun to seriously contemplate (he couches everything in the context of a crass joke to appeal to Juan De La Cruz at nauulol naman niya si Juan). Then, there is the P211 million hidden bank account, then there is this cushy relationship with the communist. Imagine, Duterte offering a position to Jalandoni, who should be shot on sight. Bottom line, any of the other candidates subjected to the same rigors as Mar in senior government service would fare much worse. They just haven’t had the the chance to fuck-up as much as Mar.
One of the reasons I decided to work for a multinational at the start of my career a lifetime ago was to make most of my professional mistakes at somebody else’s expense and so that I can eventually manage my own interests more skillfully. As many of you have pointed out, Mar has already committed (and learned from) plenty of mistakes and I should remind you that the others (Poe and Duterte, in particular) are poised to lead us into a Gordian cluster fuck, while Binay would just continue his fucked-up plundering ways.
So in response to the question, “Why not Mar?” Because we would be so much more screwed with the others! And that’s getting real!
Mar Roxas did not commit those mistakes. They are just plain stupidity and incompetence. Wherever you put Mar Roxas; he will mess up things…the guy has no talent, except as an ass licker of Aquino.
He is a liar, and a thief. The missing Typhoon Yolanda Relief Fund under his responsibility is missing.
That’s just how democracy works — it entailed delegation of the important task of selecting leaders to a popular vote. The underlying assumption there is that what is popular determines what is right.
As such, the means to acquire political power is to appeal to popular sentiment. The people leading in this race, therefore, are those who had successfully applied that strategy.
The point is, whatever Mar Roxas did or to whatever level he performed was evidently irrelevant to the criteria of popularity applied towards determining whether or not he will ascend power.
Unfortunately for him, the behaviours he exhibited and the perceptions he propagated as a result of the incidents and situations I enumerated in this article contributed to that failure to achieve the popularity required to win this election.
It’s simple, really.
We chose democracy, therefore we should live with the outcomes it delivers us. That is the fundamental reality at work here.
If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.
Hi everyone. Here’s another reason NOT to vote for Mar Roxas. Just today, a campaign parade passed in front of my house. It used the sirens of ambulances and fire trucks to call people’s attention. (I initially thought that a fire was nearby.) Imagine my surprise when I saw YELLOW umbrellas, volunteers in YELLOW shirts, and streamers with MAR ROXAS’ name displayed on the vehicles.
I still remember P-Noy’s promise at the start of his administration: walang wang-wang (no sirens). And now the Liberal Party where P-Noy came from just BROKE the promise.
I used to think that Mar Roxas might be the lesser evil among presidential candidates, but now I know better than to vote for him.