{"id":51693,"date":"2015-06-13T10:48:29","date_gmt":"2015-06-13T02:48:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=51693"},"modified":"2015-06-13T10:48:29","modified_gmt":"2015-06-13T02:48:29","slug":"roxas-one-of-my-top-bets-as-successor-aquino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/06\/13\/roxas-one-of-my-top-bets-as-successor-aquino\/","title":{"rendered":"Roxas one of my top bets as successor \u2013 Aquino"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"President<\/a>
President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III (Photo by Benhur Arcayan\/Malaca\u00f1ang Photo Bureau)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA \u2013 In his speech on Independence Day, President Benigno \u201cNoynoy\u201d Aquino III commended Interior Secretary Manuel \u201cMar\u201d Roxas II for being a \u2018dependable worker’ and for always \u2018getting the job done.\u2019<\/p>\n

Will Aquino then give his endorsement to Roxas?<\/p>\n

The President had not yet given any hint that he had already chosen a preferred presidential candidate for next year\u2019s elections. He disclosed, however, that he would give his endorsement after his last State of the Nation Address (SONA) in July.<\/p>\n

A month before delivering his address, Aquino admitted that Roxas was one of his administration\u2019s top bets as his successor.<\/p>\n

The President also recognized Roxas\u2019 initiative to suggest creating a Negros Island Region, after hearing the pleas of the masses in Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, Mar Roxas, a true son of Panay, advanced this initiative\u2026 [As] in the past, we know that whenever we task Mar Roxas to lead a project or program, you can expect that initiative will succeed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After the rites, reporters asked Roxas about his insights on Aquino\u2019s words.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s make the President\u2019s statement speak for itself,\u201d he answered.<\/p>\n

Liberal Party (LP) vice chairman and Senate President Franklin Drilon, who was present in the ceremonies, acknowledged that Aquino seemed to have indirectly endorsed Roxas. He clarified, however, that the people should not be quick to jump into conclusions.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet the President do the announcement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Earlier statements of LP members claimed that Aquino would most probably endorse a candidate from LP.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has about 85 percent probability,\u201d Iloilo Representative Jerry Tre\u00f1as said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the President had also been having one-on-one meetings with Senator Grace Poe. The neophyte senator had been topping presidential and vice presidential preferences surveys.<\/p>\n

Poe, however, remained undecided if she would seek higher office in the coming elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that people are saying, \u2018You\u2019re just playing hard to get.\u2019 [But] this is not an easy decision to make\u2026 I don\u2019t have the machinery, I don\u2019t have the money,\u201d she said, explaining that she still had \u2018a lot of things to consider.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a huge challenge. Six years of your life, it\u2019s almost like being in a convent. You always have to be detached but immersed at the same time,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA \u2013 In his speech on Independence Day, President Benigno \u201cNoynoy\u201d Aquino III commended Interior Secretary Manuel \u201cMar\u201d Roxas II …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":51694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95,483],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","category-politics","mauthors-cyra-moraleda","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}