Mar Roxas

Mar is one of the grandchildren of Manuel Roxas, the first President of the Third Philippine Republic (1946–48), and Trinidad de Leon.

The couple married in 1955.

Manuel "Mar" Araneta Roxas II (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.

Manuel "Mar" Araneta Roxas II was born on May 13, 1957, in Manila to Judy Araneta (of Bago, Negros Occidental) and Gerardo Roxas (1923–1982; of Capiz), a Senator (1963–1972).

He has two siblings: Maria Lourdes (married to Augusto Ojeda and mother of three) and Gerardo Jr. (1960–1993), a former congressman.

After grade school and high school at the Ateneo de Manila University, Roxas attended the

Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, majoring in Economics and earning a Bachelor of Science degree in 1979.

After graduation, he worked for seven years as an investment banker in New York City, and became an assistant vice president of the New York-based Allen & Company.

Following the 1985 announcement by President Ferdinand Marcos of a snap election, Roxas took leave of absence to join the presidential campaign of Corazon Aquino.

In September 1986, President Corazon Aquino went to the United States.

Roxas was one of those who organized a series of investment round-table discussions with the American business community.

From 1986 onwards, Roxas visited the Philippines more frequently and proposed to Allen & Company to set up a branch in Asia, specifically in the Philippines; later his superiors agreed.

In 1991, he was stationed in the Philippines with North Star Capitals, Inc. which took public the Jollibee fast food restaurant chain.

In the United States, he participated in the first financing for Discovery Channel and Tri-Star Pictures.

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.

Roxas' younger brother, Dinggoy, who represented the 1st District of Capiz, died of colon cancer in 1993.

At the age of 36, he decided to run in the special election to replace his brother in the seat and won.

He later became Majority Leader of the House of Representatives.

His landmark laws include, among others:

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 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.

He served in the Cabinet of the Philippines as Secretary of the Interior and Local Government from 2012 to 2015.

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

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.

Roxas was the standard-bearer of the Liberal Party for the 2016 presidential election.

After placing second in the election, Roxas conceded to Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte on May 10, 2016.

He ranked 16th in that election and failed to secure a six-year term.

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.