Mar Roxas: The Profile
Birth Name: Maria Ana Consuelo Madrigal-Valade
Political Party: Liberal Party
Hometown: Roxas City, Capiz, Makati City
Civil Status: Married
Gender: Male
Nationality: Filipino
Birthday: May 13, 1957
Religion: Roman Catholicism
Personal life:
Mar Roxas is the son of Judy Araneta of Bago City, Negros Occidental and Gerardo Roxas of Capiz and the former Senator and the only son of Manuel Roxas, the first President of the Third Philippine Republic, and Trinidad de Leon. He is a graduate of Ateneo de Manila University for grade school and high school, and spent his college years at Wharton School of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania, earning a degree in economics in 1979.
After he graduated, he worked for seven years as an investment banker in New York, and became an assistant vice president of the New York-based Allen & Company; in 1985 he joined the presidential campaign for President Cory Aquino.
He is the former Representative of the 1st district of Capiz from the year 1993 up to 200 and later appointed as the Secretary of trade and industry by President Joseph Estrada.
He resigned from the position during the EDSA Revolution of 2001 and was later re-appointed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in her new Cabinet. He resigned for his position when he runs for the Senate seat in the 2004 Philippine election. With the 19 million votes he was elected as the Senator of the Republic of the Philippines, the highest ever garnered by a national candidate in any Philippine election.
Political Career:
Mar Roxas served as the 1st District of Capiz from 1993 to 2000 and become the majority leader of the house. During his term of office for the congress he passed many laws including the:
Republic Act No. 8759 – establishing in all municipalities a Public Employment Service Office which serves as employment facilitation and information center, and links all job opportunities within the region;
Republic Act No. 8748 – amending the Special Economic Zone Act by directly allocating to the municipality or city 2% (out of the 5%) gross tax to be collected from the establishments operating in the ecozone and providing for disturbance compensation for persons to be displaced or evicted by publicly-owned ecozones;
Republic Act No. 8756 – incentivizing the establishment of regional headquarters to encourage investment and operation of multinational companies in the country and to generate more jobs.
His tenure in the House was most noted for his principal authorship of Republic Act No. 7880 (Roxas Law), which ensures fair distribution of the education capital budget among all the provinces. This started his advocacy for fair and equitable access to education, free from regional bias and political patronage considerations.
He becomes the secretary of DTI in the year 2000-2003. He is very committed to his work and among his well done job are the He pushed for MSME development through the SULONG (SMEs Unified Lending Opportunities for National Growth) Program, which granted almost P26.7 billion on low-interest loans to 281,229 SMEs on its first year.
He also promoted the Tamang Timbang, Tamang Presyo (Right Scale, Right Price) program for consumers; the Presyong Tama, Gamot Pampamilya (Right Price, Family Medicine) to make affordable and quality medicines accessible to Filipinos, and Pinoy Pandesal, Palengke ng Bayan, among others.
As a proponent of the philosophy of ‘palengkenomics’, which considers the “palengke” (market) as a microcosm of the economy, Roxas conducts weekly monitoring of the prices of prime commodities and maintains strong linkages with suppliers, traders, and vendors in the different wet markets.
He was chosen as a senator in 2004-2010
Among his bills passed during his term are:
Affordable Medicines Senate Bill No. 101 (Law on Patents, Tradenames and Trademarks) to amend Republic Act No. 8293, otherwise known as the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines, to lower the prices of medicines .
EVAT Funds for Education and Healthcare Senate Bill No. 102 (People’s Fund Act) to ease the effect of the 12% E-VAT. The People’s Fund would consist of thirty percent (30%) of all proceeds from the VAT collected under Title IV of the National Internal Revenue Code.
Tax Exemption for Minimum Wage Earners , Senate Bill No. 103 (Individual Tax Exemption for Minimum Wage Earners Bill) to exempt minimum wage earners in the private sector and government workers in Salary Grades 1 to 3, amending certain provisions of Republic Act No. 8424, otherwise known as the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997, as amended.
Amendments to the Roxas Law, Senate Bill No. 104 to amend Republic Act No. 7880, Fair and Equitable Access to Education Act, to eliminate the problem of classroom shortages in the Philippines, as well as enhancing the process of construction, rehabilitation, replacement, completion, and repair of needed school buildings and classrooms.
Regulating the Pre-Need Industry, Senate Bill No. 105 (Pre-Need Industry Act of 2007) to address the absence of a statute that regulates the pre-need industry by establishing the Pre-Need Industry Act of 2007 to govern the operations of firms which issue or sell pre-need plans or similar contracts and investments.
Anti-Smuggling Bill, Senate Bill No. 106 (Anti-Smuggling Act of 2007) to amend certain provisions of Presidential Decree No. 1464, otherwise known as the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines
Lemon Law, Senate Bill No. 107 (Lemon Law of 2007) to have a one (1) year period in which buyers of brand-new vehicles can avail of the provisions of this Lemon Law, which allows up to four repairs on the same defect before a replacement or refund of the vehicle can be claimed.
SME Magna Carta, Senate Bill No. 108 (Magna Carta for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) to strengthen Republic Act No. 6977, the Magna Carta for Small Enterprises.
Free Information Act, Senate Bill No. 109 (Free Information Act) to implement the Constitutional guarantee to free access by the people to official information, except when the disclosure of such information would jeopardize other prerogatives of the government, namely, the protection of the privacy of individuals, trade secrets, national security, public order and safety, and foreign diplomatic relations.
Decriminalizing Libel, Senate Bill No. 110 (Penalty of Imprisonment in Libel Cases Abolition Bill)
