Roxas Explains Why Wife Korina Not Taking Part In His Campaign Sorties

Roxas Explains Why Wife Korina Not Taking Part In His Campaign Sorties
www.gmanews.tv
By : Amita O. Legaspi/LBG, RJAB Jr.
March 19, 2010

Vice presidential bet Senator Manuel Roxas II explained Friday why his wife, broadcaster Korina Sanchez, has not been appearing in his campaign sorties, saying he does not want to drag her in partisan activities.

"Iniingatan ko rin ang katayuan ni Korina dahil broadcast journalist siya, hindi naman siya nanggaling sa entertainment side, sa journalism side siya. So hindi ko gusto masyado na kasama siya sa mga partisan na activities," the senator told Mike Enriquez during dzBB's Ikaw Na Ba? The Vice Presidential Interview Friday morning.

(I want to protect Korina as a broadcast journalist, she does not come from the entertainment side, she's from the journalism side. I don't want her to get too much involved in partisan activities.)

He said Sanchez is helping him in the campaign in her own way.

"Umiikot naman siya sa kanyang advocacies, sa women’s [rights], sa iba pang lugar pero hindi na sa bawat campaign e sasama po siya," Roxas said.

(She mentions me whenever she visits groups for her advocacy, such as the women's issues, and whenever she goes to other places. But she will not join us in our sorties.)

Kris Aquino, Sanchez' friend and sister of presidential candidate Senator Benigno Simeon Aquino III has joined the LP campaign sorties twice – in Zamboanga last week and in Tarlac this week – towing along her husband James Yap.

Asked what would happen to Sanchez' career once he wins in the May polls, the senator said in jest that she would still be his wife.

Kidding aside, Roxas admitted that it would be hard for Sanchez to return to broadcasting, and that she has already accepted that.

"Sa palagay ko hindi na po siya pwede magnews. Tanggap din niya na sakaling palarin po tayo ay mahihirapan na siya mag news pa dahil of course sasabihin na ang mister niya ay nasa mataas na posisyon," he said.

(I think she can't be part of any news team anymore. She has already accepted that. Should I win, she would not be doing news reporting because her husband holds a high position in government.)

Asked if they are expecting a baby, Roxas said not yet but they are "monitoring" it.

It has been five months since Roxas and Sanchez tied the knot, less than a month before he filed his certificate of candidacy last November.

Korina A One-Woman Show On Campaign Trail

Korina A One-Woman Show On Campaign Trail
The Philippine Star
FUNFARE
By : Ricardo F. Lo
March 15, 2010

If Imelda Marcos was former pres. Ferdinand Marcos’ “secret weapon,” it can be said that Korina Sanchez is her husband sen./vice presidentiable Mar Roxas’ “hidden weapon.” While madame Imelda was very “visible” on the campaign trail, thanks to the full-force media coverage, Korina is deliberately “invisible” because she’s doing it without fanfare in contrast to when she was still co-anchoring the ABS-CBN late-evening newscast Bandila when she was, well, “highly-visible.”

While the candidates go full swing in their respective campaign sorties, the wives and/or husbands choose their own way of supporting their spouses — as iIve said, others more visibly than the rest. One would have predicted that celebrity spouses would be in the forefront of their candidate partners’ campaign trail. The public is particularly interested in the wives, of course — what they’re doing, what they’re wearing, how they either boost their husbands’ chance or how they get their husbands in trouble.

Korina was once quoted as saying that she preferred to stay away from it all as much as possible.

“I don’t want to look like a stage wife,” she said. “Mar knows I love and support him. I don’t have to be with him smiling and handing him cold towels during sorties. I think iIcan be of better help in other things.”

Well, that “invisibility” seems to have now changed, again without much fanfare involved.

Funfare had an exclusive phone interview with ate Koring (as Mar and now the public fondly call her) the other day and we were pleasantly surprised to find out that she was in, as the marching song puts it, “far Zamboanga.” “Since last year, I'd been all over. But i always preferred it under the radar screen para wala masyadong nakikialam and to avoid the publicity. I’ve been having talks, mostly consultative in nature, with women’s groups and it helps me in my show, Rated K, for more story sources and personal insight. But since official campaigning started, I’ve been a lot more direct, asking people to vote for Mar.”

Korina said she prefers to do it her way, meaning seldom, if ever, side by side with Mar who’s the Liberal Party running mate of Sen. Noynoy Aquino. “I have a sortie schedule apart from Mar’s so that we cover a bigger area and get to more voters. It’s not easy. Mainit, maalikabok, siksikan. But it’s a lot of fun. I bring one of my brothers along and a cousin of Mar’s and we end up squeezing in the tourist activities between functions.”

On the campaign trail, Korina wows ‘em as if she herself is the one running.

A Noynoy-Mar team member recalled the comment of a reporter who recently interviewed Korina: “nakakamangha siya, a one-woman show. Siya na ang host, napapatawa niya ang crowd, nagpapa-contest, nakikisayaw, tapos kumakanta pa siya!” That’s the side of Korina people have never seen before and they give her a thumbs-up for that.

“Well, you know, if you’ve been on tv for as long as i have you sort of know what makes audiences understand better, respond better,” said Korina. “In this case, I'm just a wife telling everyone that Mar cares for them, knows them and that we also go through the same ups and downs that most married couples do. It’s important for me that iIleave the venue with people smiling and happy. Enjoy ako, maraming biruan at tawanan.”

Korina usually wears maong and comfortable shoes with her husband’s signature royal blue map shirt. And, of course, she also wears Noynoy’s yellow shirt. “Wherever I go I always bark my lungs out for Noynoy Aquino as well.”

Korina has been through more than 30 towns all over the country so far and is scheduled to reach as many as possible before may 10.