Why it must be tandem Roxas-Aquino in 2016

The Liberal Party should continue to govern in order to be able to really eradicate poverty and corruption. People here at Baguio Plaza and Mountain Province, especially the senior citizens among them, have been expressing hope that the anticorruption drive President Aquino initiated will end, once and for all, corruption, and that the government focus on agriculture to boost the national economy.

The old folks are praying for honest, competent and experienced leaders in the next administration.

The seeming consensus here is to field in the 2016 elections Interior Secretary Mar Roxas for president and President Aquino for vice president.

The track record of Roxas is very convincing: congressman; senator; twice trade and industry secretary; thus earning the moniker “Mr. Palengke”; transportation secretary, and now interior secretary. He managed the Liberal Party while he was the party president.

In the 2010 elections, he sacrificed his presidential ambitions for Noynoy Aquino to run for president. This should be a big thing for President Aquino and his relatives. Without that sacrifice, Erap could have been back as president despite his conviction for plunder.

It is the sentiment of most old folks here that President Aquino should remain in government as vice president so that he can continue his crusade for reform and his anticorruption program. Besides, politically motivated and baseless suits that may be filed against him after his presidency can then be avoided.

Let’s give Mar and Noy the chance to champion the poor! Honesty and integrity, competence and experience should illuminate the tracks in the forthcoming electoral race.

—MOSES COMAAD,

Bontoc, Mountain Province