President Benigno Aquino, who has overseen an economic resurgence for the Philippines, endorsed Interior Secretary Mar Roxas as his preferred successor.
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Club Filipino is the same venue where Roxas announced in 2010 he was setting aside his presidential plans to give way to Aquino’s candidacy.
Liberal Party senators Franklin Drilon, Ralph Recto, Bam Aquino and Teofisto Guingona III were present yesterday at the endorsement of Roxas’ presidential bid for next year.
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Sen. Aquino cited Roxas’ clean track record without any trace of corruption and the readiness and capacity to address the hard issues of the country because of his experience in governance.
“Mar Roxas has shown the ability and integrity to pursue the “tuwid na daan” (straight and righteous path) – programme of government”, Aquino told a gathering of members and supporters of the ruling Liberal Party (LP) at the historic Club Filipino in suburban San Juan City, Metro Manila.
Evardone, in an interview after Roxas was officially proclaimed Friday as the standard bearer, said that LP was “extremely hopeful” that Senator Grace Poe would consider the option of running as Roxas running-mate.
The constitution limits Aquino to a single six-year term, so the Southeast Asian nation will elect a new president next May, along with more than 17,000 national and local officials. “I will never stray from the straight and narrow path”.
Aquino’s mother, Cory, was sworn-in in the same room as a revolutionary president after the expulsion of former president Ferdinand Marcos by a people-backed military mutiny in 1986.
Asked by reporters if Batangas Gov. Vilma Santos-Recto is also in the short list, Evardone said: “She is also highly qualified to run for vice-president”.
In the May polls, Roxas, 58, a Wharton-educated economist and former investment banker, will again face Binay.
“I assure President Aquino that I will continue to walk the daang matuwid, because I believe it will be made more meaningful if more people continue the journey, wherever they may be and in whatever role they play”, Poe said when sought for her reaction on the Roxas endorsement.
Poe is a daughter of the late widespread motion film star Fernando Poe, who misplaced the fraud-marred 2004 presidential election gained by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Aquino’s predecessor who’s in hospital detention on expenses of corruption and election sabotage.
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Roxas was eventually the President’s choice as his anointed one, who puts country first before self.
