De Lima, Garin, Tolentino on LP’s shortlist for senatorial slate

CEBU CITY – At least three Cabinet secretaries are part of the shortlist for the Liberal Party’s senatorial slate for the 2016 elections.
 

Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II, in an interview after the “People’s Dialogue” in Cebu City on Monday, said strong contenders for the administration’s senatorial line up are Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, Health Secretary Janette Garin and Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Francis Tolentino.
 

“Secretary Leila, Secretary Francis, and Secretary Janet are all very qualified. Napakaganda ng kanilang naipakitang serbisyo, dedikasyon, at talagang nananalig sa daang matuwid. (They have shown very good service and dedication, and have been faithful to our thrust of straight path),” Roxas told reporters.
 

“Certainly, they would be among those in consideration (for LP’s senatorial lineup),” he added.
 

Roxas and six Cabinet secretaries were in Cebu City to attend the Daang Matuwid People’s Dialogue at the Cebu Normal University Monday morning.
 

They listened to and elicited feedbacks from about 200 representatives of different government agencies and the public on how government programs are being implemented.
Not one of the participants mentioned negative comments against the administration.
The activity was supposed to be a dialogue between Cabinet secretaries and the public on various programs of the government.
But during the event, the Cabinet secretaries urged the audience to support Roxas’ presidential bid and the administration’s Daang Matuwid policy.
Wearing the party’s famous yellow and black polo shirts, Roxas and each Cabinet secretary encouraged the audience to shun “corruption” and continue what President Benigno Aquino III has begun.
 

“We need to defend the Daang Matuwid. There are those who want to return to that dark and dusty road in the past. Why? In that system, they are famous, and they could easily show-off. That’s the trapo-style of governance,” Roxas told the audience without mentioning names.
 

He also criticized those who wanted to seek a government position just for the sake of doing so.
 

“There are also those who want to govern although without any clear plan. They do not have a definite outlook or programs for our country. In short, mamamasyal lang,” Roxas said.
 

“On the other hand, we in the Daang Matuwid have definite plans and clear ways on how we can achieve a bright tomorrow. You, our people, are proof that we have slowly heading into that bright future we all long for,” he added.
 

Roxas was later asked about the perceptions that he and the Cabinet secretaries were politicizing what supposed to be a dialogue.
 

He replied: “Pamumulitika kon kasinungalingan. Pero lahat naman ng sinabi dito ay totoo (It is politics if we have told lies. But what we have been saying are all true).”
 

De Lima, however, was tight-lipped regarding her plans in the 2014 elections.
“There’s a proper time for an announcement. Not now,” he told reporters as she boarded a van.

She said she went with Roxas to Cebu City in support of the government’s Daang Matuwid policy.
 

“You know the justice sector needs to boast of what this Daang Matuwid has done. And I’m the ideal representative to do that,” she said.