Roxas ready to accept what the future holds

MANILA, Philippines - A few days after Vice President Jejomar Binay floated information that the Liberal Party (LP) might join forces with the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II said he is open to dealing with anything.

“I’m ready to face whatever the future holds in store,” Roxas said, referring to whether he wants to be the one to continue the transformation that President Aquino has started since 2010. 

During the interview at ANC, Roxas said his primary focus at present is on the reconstruction projects in the provinces devastated by Super Typhoon Yolanda.

While Aquino, in his State of the Nation Address (SONA), urged the nation to elect in the 2016 elections someone who will continue the reforms he had implemented, Roxas refused to categorically say the President was referring to him.

“It’s not for me to say, some say it is destiny. To others, it’s a gift from the people,” he said.

At the moment, Roxas said the challenge is to lift the people from dire straits.

“If I can do this, I can face my ancestors, I can face PNoy, I can face the people, and truly claim that I was true to all of them,” he added.

When asked what he would do if he became president, Roxas said he would continue Aquino’s Tuwid na Daan, which he claimed is a program that makes every official in the current administration accountable for all funds entrusted to them.

“No money is stolen under this administration,” Roxas said.

Although Binay consistently topped surveys, Roxas pointed out that “the gap between Binay and him in the elections of 2010 was just about 740,000 votes.

“There were 2.5 million ballots in the Visayas, where I’m from, that had a vote for president and none for vice-president,” said Roxas, who explained that those facts were the basis of his electoral protest that he filed before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and was later elevated to the Supreme Court.

Roxas brushed off criticism that he was slow to respond to disasters.

“In (Super Typhoon) Yolanda, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and I were in Tacloban the day before the typhoon struck,” he pointed out. “How much faster can you be?”

The disaster was so enormous, he said, that all communication facilities were down, and roads and bridges impassable.

The local government, including the police, who were supposed to respond right away, could not do so simply because they themselves were victims. Everything was at a standstill.

“Nonetheless, the national government was conducting relief operations 48 hours after,” he said.