It’s now dictatorship vs democracy–Roxas

LP standard bearer Mar Roxas III gestures during a press briefing at the LP headquarters in Balay, Cubao, Quezon City on Monday, May 2, 2016. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

NAGA CITY—The May 9 balloting is now a choice between iron-hand rule or democracy, Liberal Party (LP) standard-bearer Mar Roxas said on Thursday.

Raising the specter of martial law, Roxas said the support for the leading presidential aspirant, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, and a vice presidential candidate, Sen. Bongbong Marcos, was a virtual vote for the death of democracy.

He said the leadership style of the Duterte-Marcos tandem was the exact opposite of the kind of governance that he and his running mate, Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo, were espousing.

“The differences of the Roxas-Robredo tandem with that of the Duterte-Marcos is very clear and very obvious,” Roxas told reporters in Legazpi City.

“The Roxas-Robredo is for democracy and for clean and transparent governance while the Duterte-Marcos is for the return of martial law, a return of violence,” he added.

He said the country went bankrupt during the two decades that Marcos’ father and namesake, the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos, occupied Malacañang from 1965 until his ouster via the popular Edsa People Power Revolution in 1986.

From being the second most vibrant economy in Asia, Roxas said the Philippines had failed to pay its foreign debts due to corruption, abuse of power and mismanagement.

The dictatorship era, he said, also started the exodus of Filipinos who chose to work in foreign lands.

Roxas said Duterte “shows the same character” as that of the late dictator—heavy-handed, violent and “one who thinks he’s always right.”

“He’s the only who would make the decision for the entire country. If you try to oppose him, he will hurl invectives at you, insult you, threaten you,” he said.

The LP presidential candidate also noted how Duterte warned that he would abolish the Congress, the Commission on Human Rights, the Commission on Audit and other government agencies that would hinder his reign should he win the presidency.

“It only means that we will again experience martial law,” Roxas said.