Manuel "Mar" Araneta Roxas II (Tagalog pronunciation:
[ˈɾohas]; born May 13, 1957) is a
Filipino politician who served as a Senator of the Philippines. He is the grandson of former
Philippine President Manuel Roxas. He served in the Cabinet of the Philippines as Secretary of
the Interior and Local Government from 2012 to 2015. Previously, he was the Secretary of Trade
and Industry from 2000 to 2003 and Secretary of Transportation and Communications from 2011
to 2012. He is the son of former Senator Gerry Roxas.
After graduation from the University of Pennsylvania,[1][2] Roxas worked as a banker in New
York, mobilizing venture capital funds for small and medium enterprises. He served as the
Representative of the 1st District of Capiz from 1993 to 2000. His stint as congressman was cut
short after he was appointed by President Joseph Estrada as Secretary of Trade and Industry.[3]
He resigned from the position at the height of the EDSA Revolution of 2001 and was later re-
appointed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in her new cabinet.[4] He resigned again to run
for a Senate seat in the 2004 election.[5] He was elected senator with 19 million votes, the highest
ever garnered by a national candidate in any Philippine election at that time. Roxas co-authored
the Expanded Value Added Tax Law (E-Vat).[6]
Initially one of the leading candidates in the 2010 presidential election, he slid down to become a
vice-presidential candidate in order to make way for fellow senator Benigno Aquino III, who
won. Roxas was defeated by Makati mayor Jejomar Binay of PDP–Laban by a margin of
727,084 votes. He filed an electoral protest before the Supreme Court of the Philippines, with the
Court sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal.[7] On June 7, 2011, Roxas was appointed by
President Aquino as Secretary of Transportation and Communications to replace outgoing
secretary Jose de Jesus, and he took office on July 4, 2011.[8] Afterwards, on August 31, 2012,
President Aquino nominated him as Secretary of Interior and Local Government, replacing Jesse
Robredo who died in a plane crash.
Roxas was the standard-bearer of the Liberal Party for the 2016 presidential election. He was
officially endorsed by President Aquino to continue the present administration's reforms,
collectively dubbed Daang Matuwid ("straight path"), which he formally accepted on July 31,
2015.[9][10][11] On August 3, 2015, Roxas officially tendered his resignation as Secretary of the
Interior and Local Government in order to focus on his presidential campaign.[12] After placing
second in the election, Roxas conceded to Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte on May 10, 2016.
[13]
On October 15, 2018, Roxas announced his return to politics after a 2-year hiatus, filing his
Certificate of Candidacy the next day for Senator in the 2019 Philippine Senate election.[14][15] He
ranked 16th in that election and failed to secure a six-year term.
Early life and background
Manuel "Mar" Araneta Roxas II was born on May 13, 1957, in Manila, Philippines, to Judy
Araneta of Bago, Negros Occidental, and Gerardo Roxas (1924–1982) of Capiz. Roxas' father
was a Senator (1963–1972) and he is one of the grandchildren of Manuel Roxas, the first
President of the Third Philippine Republic (1946–48), and Trinidad de Leon. The couple married
in 1955.[16] He has two siblings namely Maria Lourdes or Ria, married to Augusto Ojeda and
mother of three, and the late Congressman Gerardo "Dinggoy" Roxas, Jr. (1960–1993).[17]
After grade school and high school at the Ateneo de Manila University, Roxas attended the well-
regarded[18][19] [20] Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, majoring in
Economics and earning a Bachelor of Science degree in 1979.[21] After graduation, he worked for
seven years as an investment banker in New York City, and became an assistant vice president of
the New York-based Allen & Company.[22]
Following the 1985 announcement by President Ferdinand Marcos of a snap election, Roxas took
leave of absence to join the presidential campaign of Corazon Aquino. In September 1986,
President Corazon Aquino went to the United States. Roxas was one of those who organized a
series of investment round-table discussions with the American business community. From 1986
onwards, Roxas visited the Philippines more frequently and proposed to Allen & Company to set
up a branch in Asia, specifically in the Philippines; later his superiors agreed. In 1991, he was
stationed in the Philippines with North Star Capitals, Inc. which took public the Jollibee fast food
restaurant chain. In the United States, he participated in the first financing for Discovery Channel
and Tri-Star Pictures.[23]
Congress
Roxas' younger brother, Dinggoy, who represented the 1st District of Capiz, died of colon cancer
in 1993. At the age of 36, he decided to run in the special election to replace his brother in the
seat and won.[23] He later became Majority Leader of the House of Representatives.
His landmark laws include, among others:
Republic Act No. 8759 – establishing in all municipalities a Public Employment Service Office
which serves as an employment facilitation and information center, and links all job
opportunities within the region;
Republic Act No. 8748 – amending the Special Economic Zone Act by directly allocating to the
municipality or city 2% (out of the 5%) gross tax to be collected from the establishments
operating in the ecozone and providing for disturbance compensation for persons to be
displaced or evicted by publicly owned ecozones;
Republic Act No. 8756 – incentivizing the establishment of regional headquarters to encourage
investment and operation of multinational companies in the country and to generate more jobs.
His tenure in the House was most noted for his principal authorship of Republic Act No. 7880
(Roxas Law), which ensures fair distribution of the education capital budget among all the
provinces. This started his advocacy for fair and equitable access to education, free from regional
bias and political patronage considerations
