‘I will keep questioning if Roxas is fit to be VP’ – Legarda

“THE LIBERAL PARTY CAMP IS RIGHT IN ITS PREDICTION: I WILL KEEP CRITICIZING MAR ROXAS, EVEN AS ELECTION DAY DRAWS NEARER, FOR FEAR THAT HE WILL FOOL VOTERS IN CHOOSING THE WRONG CANDIDATE FOR VICE PRESIDENT,” NP-NPC-LDP VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE LOREN LEGARDA SAID ON TUESDAY AS SHE HEADED FOR PAMPANGA.
Legarda was reacting to statements from her opponents that her criticism of Roxas was prompted by her lower ranking in the surveys.
“Yes, I want to win. Have you heard any other candidate say otherwise?” she said. “But this is not about surveys. This is about whether Mar is fit for the vice presidency. That’s why I’ve been challenging him to a debate on issues, para magkaalaman na.”
A day earlier Legarda openly repeated issues she has ofter against her closest rival at a press conference at the Manila Polo Club in Makati.
“Siya ay nagpapahirap sa mahirap,” Legarda said. “Anti-poor siya.”
She pointed out that Roxas voted for Value Added Tax and watered down the Cheaper Medicines Act, for which he had been claiming authorship.
Farmers Market, which is owned by the Araneta family to which Roxas belongs, still has high rentals, despite Roxas’s previous image as “Mr. Palengke.”
She also labelled Roxas as a “political butterfly” not her as her critics had been so fond of saying.
She noted that Roxas kept changing sides, depending on who was in power.
In 2000, Roxas was part Trade and Industry secratary of President Jospeh Estrada. In 2001, he was reappointed to the same position by President Gloria Arroyo.
In 2004, he ran for senator under Arroyo’s Koalisyon ng Katapatan at Karanasan sa Kinabukasan. And now he is running under the Liberal Party.
In 2007, he tried to ask for Estrada’s blessing to run with him as vice president.
“Sino ngayon and kaduda-duda ang pagka-oposisyon? Yung limang beses nagpalit ng partido at kung kani-kanino kumakapi?” he said. “Whose loyalty is in question now.”