Mar Roxas

Manuel "Mar" Araneta Roxas II (Tagalog: [ˈɾɔhas]; born May 13, 1957) is a Filipino former politician who served as a senator of the Philippines from 2004 to 2010. He is the grandson and namesake of former Philippine President Manuel Roxas. He served in the Cabinet of the Philippines as the 37th secretary of the interior and local government from 2012 to 2015 after serving as the 30th secretary of trade and industry from 2000 to 2003 and 38th 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, Roxas worked as a banker in New York, mobilizing venture capital funds for small and medium enterprises. He served as the Representative of the Capiz's first district 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. He resigned from the position at the height of the Second EDSA Revolution and was later re-appointed by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in her new cabinet. He resigned again to run for a Senate seat in the 2004 election. Campaigning as Mr. Palengke, 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). 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. On...