RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION VS CORRUPTION, NOT HATRED -- ROXAS
CALL FOR REFORMS REFLECT PEOPLE'S HOPES FOR THE FUTURE

Senator Mar Roxas today said Filipinos' righteous indignation against the corruption and wrongdoings of the Arroyo Administration, and not hatred, fuels the call for transformational change in the national leadership that Liberal Party standard-bearer Senator Noynoy Aquino and the LP national slate carry as their platform for the 2010 national election.

Roxas said Malacanang's mistaken notion that Aquino's call for reforms is a "platform of hatred" against President Arroyo only proves the Administration is out of touch with reality that leads to the corruption that pervades in government now.

"Talagang lantad na lantad na ang pagka-manhid ng administrasyon sa tunay na nararamdaman ng taumbayan (The administration's uncaring attitude towards the true feelings of the people is evident)," he said.

"If a person cannot hate what is crooked, what is corrupt, what is wrong and immoral, then there's something wrong with him. That is what this Administration has shown again and again," Roxas said.

"There's something wrong with a person who refuses to be indignant about the culture of corruption and the culture of impunity, and most especially against a culture that turns a blind eye towards the real concerns and feelings of our people," he added.

Aquino and Roxas bared their platform entitled "A Social Contract With the Filipino People" as they and the LP senatorial slate led by former Senate President Franklin Drilon filed their certificates of candidacy last Saturday with the Commission on Elections.

The Aquino-Roxas platform calls for transformational leadership that could re-awaken Filipinos' sense of right and wrong through the living example of the national leadership, rapid but widely-shared expansion of the economy, rebuilding of public institutions through strong solidarity among Filipinos.

"We will start to make these changes first in ourselves-by doing the right things, by giving value to excellence and integrity and rejecting mediocrity and dishonesty, and by giving priority to others over ourselves. We will make these changes across many aspects of our national life," according to the platform.