Mar Roxas eager to begin new job today

Former Sen. Mar Roxas said he was looking forward to taking over the “big and challenging” job of secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communications beginning today (Monday).

Before reporting to his new office, Roxas will pass by Malacañang to take his oath of office before President Aquino.

“It’s a big job, big challenge with its vast problems,” Roxas told the Inquirer by phone.

Among the problems he would have to deal with are the controversies surrounding the operation of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 and the NorthRail line, as well as the problems at the Land Transportation Office related to the internal squabbles of its information technology partner StradCom.

According to Roxas, solving these problems would need “team effort.”

He said he would deal with the problems by coming in with a new team that he described as “professional, experienced, competent and apolitical.”

Roxas said he would name four undersecretaries in a few days. “I am still talking to them,” he said, adding that they all were from the private sector.

“Their common characteristic is that they’re experienced, competent in their chosen fields, and none of them have been in politics,” he said.

Roxas said he and his wife, Korina Sanchez, took a brief vacation last week in Melbourne, Australia.

“That’s the last vacation before I time in for work using the Bundy clock again,” he said.