Korina Sanchez: I am representing Mar, but I am not yet campaigning

Korina Sanchez Photo by Ryan Leagoo/INQUIRER.net

COTABATO CITY—Korina Sanchez on Tuesday downplayed observations she was into early campaigning for her husband, presidential hopeful Mar Roxas.

Sanchez represented the interior secretary at the 3rd General Assembly of Lumad, Iranun and Maguindanaon (Alim) here as guest speaker.

It was learned that Roxas failed to speak before the assembly, attended mainly by local government officials, due to an urgent Malacañang meeting.

“I am representing him, but I am not yet campaigning,” a smiling Sanchez told reporters at the sidelines of the assembly at the Shariff Kabungsuan Center inside the tightly guarded compound of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Sanchez said she was traveling to the countryside as a journalist, not to promote her husband’s candidacy.

She said she was also preparing for the 10th anniversary of her TV program “Rated K” and her fifth wedding anniversary, which she expected “to be meaningful and memorable when shared in public.”

Over the years, Rated K has also been distributing rubber sandals to schoolchildren of poor families, said Sanchez, who added her husband was helping her in her advocacy.

As to her husband’s stand on the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD), which was blamed by analysts for his defeat to Jejomar Binay in the 2010 vice presidential race, Sanchez said: “What Mar was up to was his own, and I did not interfere, because I know and I’m sure that he loves the country and the Filipinos in general.”

Sanchez also defended the Aquino administration, although she admitted that there had been some lapses and blunders during the past years.

Nobody’s perfect, she said.

But Sanchez said the current administration had succeeded in placing “high and mighty” or “untouchables” behind bars such as former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, senators and congressmen on corruption charges.

In Davao City, Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate said Roxas should explain where he was drawing funds for his campaign advertisements.

Zarate said Roxas’ “face is conspicuous on TV morning shows and with all his campaign ads on TV.”

15 seconds TV time for P250K

“Fifteen seconds on a primetime commercial spot can go upward from P250,000, while 30 seconds on TV can go upward from half a million. His TV placements early in the game makes questioning his fund sources a valid point,” he said.

Zarate said there had been suspicions that Roxas’ early campaign was being funded with government money.

“The DILG (Department of the Interior and Local Government), for example, with Mar Roxas in the stern, has a whopping P154.5-billion budget in 2015. The DILG was also given funds for housing and water even if these were not its mandate,” he said.

“Are we seeing the people’s money in the campaign ads of Mar Roxas?” Zarate asked.

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