Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II EDWIN BACASMAS/INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
“Desperate and in denial.”
That was how the camp of Vice President Jejomar Binay described Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II, the vice president’s potential rival in the 2016 presidential elections.
Lawyer Rico Quicho, spokesman for political affairs of Binay, blamed the misery of commuters of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT-3) to the “inefficiency and corruption” of Roxas and other government appointees.
“Desperation and denial best [describes] the frame of mind of Secretary Roxas,” Quicho said in a statement.
Quicho said the MRT-3 has become a “public hazard and a certified rolling coffin for the thousands of passengers.”
READ: Danger to life and limb
“After five years, the MRT is not just slow, it’s slower,” he said.
Quicho claimed that the “(downhill) slide” of the MRT-3 started under during Roxas’ tenure as Transportation secretary.
“This is something you cannot deny,” he said.
Binay’s camp lamented that despite Roxas’ “poor performance” as a transport secretary, he was appointed as Interior secretary.
“Unfortunately, despite Secretary Roxas’ failures in the DOTC, he got away with it and was even given the DILG, which he now uses for personal political aggrandizement,” he said.
“This again illustrates the governance that rewards the ‘manhid’ and ‘palpak’ (insensitive and inutile) at the expense of the people,” he added.
On June 24, three days after he resigned from his cabinet posts, Binay issued a scathing speech against the Aquino administration, including what he called its inefficiency to address the problems besetting the MRT-3.
But Roxas laughed off Binay’s speech, saying the vice president could have raised the issues when he was part of the Aquino cabinet. IDL
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