Mar Roxas

Mar Roxas

Manuel "Mar" Araneta Roxas II (born May 13, 1957) is a former Senator of the Philippines. He is the son of former Senator Gerry Roxas, and the grandson of former President Manuel Roxas and industrialist J. Amado Araneta.

A graduate of the Wharton School of Economics, Roxas worked as an investment banker, 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 Philippine election. He was elected as Senator with 19 million votes and the highest ever garnered by a national candidate in any Philippine election and co-author of Expanded Value Added Tax Law (E-Vat).

Initially one of the leading contenders in the Philippine presidential election, 2010, he slid down to become a vice-presidential candidate in order to make way for fellow Senator Benigno Aquino III. He was defeated by Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) by the narrowest margin in the history of the Fifth Republic. However, Roxas filed an electoral protest to the Supreme Court of the Philippines at the Presidential Electoral Tribunal.

On June 7, 2011, President Benigno Aquino III appointed Roxas as the new Secretary of Transportation and Communications to replace outgoing Secretary Jose de Jesus and took office on July 4, 2011.

Afterwards, on August 31, 2012, President Aquino has nominated him as the new Secretary of Interior and Local Government, replacing former DILG Sec. Jesse Robredo who died in a plane crash.