Mar Roxas cites Celso’s role in keeping country intact
Senator Mar Roxas, vice presidential bet of the Liberal Party, has highlighted the very crucial role played by Mayor Celso Lobregat in the fight to prevent the country from being dismembered and torn apart through the unconstitutional memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain (MOA-AD) that sought the creation of the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE).
Roxas was alongside Lobregat, North Cotabato Vice Gov. Manuel Piñol, Iligan Mayor Lawrence Cruz and other Mindanao leaders who went to Supreme Court a year ago to stop the MOA-AD/BJE, an agreement secretly entered into by the national government and the secessionist group Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
“Celso was right there in the center of our collective battle. Celso, Mayor Cruz, Vice Gov. Piñol, yours truly in the Senate, Sen. Noynoy as well, Sen. Frank Drilon as part of the Liberal Party—we all went individually and collectively and we all went to Supreme Court to stop the MOA-AD because this is an affront to our being Filipino. This is cutting up our country and in my case I believe that it is really unpatriotic, pagtataksil ito sa inang bayan kaya lumaban talaga tayo kasama with Mayor Celso and I am very proud to have been with him in that fight,” Roxas said in all his speaking engagements in the city Saturday.
Roxas, running mate of Senator Noynoy Aquino, consistently leads in surveys for vice president. He visited Zamboanga and Ipil in Sibugay January 7-8 specifically to grace an affair of the Araneta clan and attend other activities. He was in the company of District I Cong. Beng Climaco, the city’s Liberal Party chair.
Roxas believed that should the MOA-AD/BJE pushed through, the country would have been cut up and dissected. “Kung natuloy and MOA-AD na ito, wala, hati na ang bansa natin, mababawasan na ang Pilipinas, kaya we acknowledge publicly the very important role played by Mayor Lobregat, through his leadership in Zamboanga, through the leadership of Vice Gov. Piñol of Cotabato and Mayor Cruz of Iligan, lahat kami sama-samang tinutulan ang paghihiwa ng ating bansa.”
He vowed to continue supporting moves to prevent the cutting up and splitting of the country.
Meanwhile, like Lobregat, Roxas also called for a genuine and honest to goodness consultation with the people in the ongoing renewed peace talks, as he branded the process as “foolish”.
“What can they agree on? This government no longer has a mandate, they don’t trust each other, our people don’t trust it, there is no broad and transparent consultation so what will they agree to?” he asked.
He said the ongoing peace talks and the consultation series conducted by the government are “very wrong, they are just raising expectations and creating more trouble for the future”.
“For me we must be very alert we must not allow a fast break last two minute agreement that will bind us forever and ever,” he added. (Sheila Covarrubias)