Mar Roxas, Filipino economist and politician, 24th Filipino Secretary of the Interior
Manuel "Mar" Araneta Roxas II (Tagalog pronunciation: [ˈɾohas]; born May 13, 1957) is a Filipino politician who served as a Senator of the Philippines. He is the grandson and namesake of former Philippine President Manuel Roxas. He served in the Cabinet of the Philippines as Secretary of the Interior and Local Government from 2012 to 2015. Previously, he was the Secretary of Trade and Industry from 2000 to 2003 and Secretary of Transportation and Communications from 2011 to 2012. He is the son of former Senator Gerry Roxas.
After graduation from the University of Pennsylvania, Roxas worked as a banker in New York, mobilizing venture capital funds for small and medium enterprises. He served as the Representative of the 1st District of Capiz from 1993 to 2000. His stint as congressman was cut short after he was appointed by President Joseph Estrada as Secretary of Trade and Industry. He resigned from the position at the height of the EDSA Revolution of 2001 and was later re-appointed by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in her new cabinet. He resigned again to run for a Senate seat in the 2004 election. Campaigning as Mr. Palengke, he was elected senator with 19 million votes, the highest ever garnered by a national candidate in any Philippine election at that time. Roxas co-authored the Expanded Value Added Tax Law (E-Vat).Initially one of the leading candidates in the 2010 presidential election, he slid down to become a vice-presidential candidate in order to make way for fellow senator Benigno Aquino III, who won. Roxas was defeated by Makati mayor Jejomar Binay of PDP–Laban by a margin of 727,084 votes. He filed an electoral protest before the Supreme Court of the Philippines, with the Court sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal. On June 7, 2011, Roxas was appointed by President Aquino as Secretary of Transportation and Communications to replace outgoing secretary Jose de Jesus, and he took office on July 4, 2011. Afterwards, on August 31, 2012, President Aquino nominated him as Secretary of Interior and Local Government, replacing Jesse Robredo who died in a plane crash.
Roxas was the standard-bearer of the Liberal Party for the 2016 presidential election. He was officially endorsed by President Aquino to continue the present administration's reforms, collectively dubbed Daang Matuwid ("straight path"), which he formally accepted on July 31, 2015. On August 3, 2015, Roxas officially tendered his resignation as Secretary of the Interior and Local Government in order to focus on his presidential campaign. After placing second in the election, Roxas conceded to Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte on May 10, 2016.On October 15, 2018, Roxas announced his return to politics after a 2-year hiatus, filing his Certificate of Candidacy the next day for Senator in the 2019 Philippine Senate election. He ranked 16th in that election and failed to secure a six-year term.