Mar Roxas, his mother, his President ancestor and the Negros sugar industry

In late May 2015, Judy Araneta-Roxas hosted a grand party at the sprawling old family home in Bacolod City, Negros. Her impressive 250-strong guest list included congressmen, local mayors, the owners of sugar operations in Bacolod and Bago, and their board members. The party celebrated what her son, Manuel “Mar” Roxas, then Secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), had just done for the sugar industry. Mar had succeeded in ensuring that the industry remained exempt from a 12% tax that was to be levied on raw sugar.

But there was also something else on her mind. She used the occasion to make it publicly known that, even though it was still some months away before the official announcement, her son would be running for president. The significance of this declaration was not lost on Negros’ sugar barons. A few days later, a grand dinner was held in Judy’s honor at the home of Enrique Rojas, president of the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters, which only the island’s very wealthiest attended. That evening, Judy made her thoughts explicit: “Please do not forget my son. Can you imagine if a Negrense is in Malacañang, what can come to us in Negros?”