HONG KONG—Reaching out to Filipino voters in this city, Liberal Party (LP) presidential candidate Mar Roxas yesterday likened the “daang matuwid” or the administration’s straight path governance to building “step by step” a First World society like Hong Kong in the Philippines.
Roxas, his running mate Rep. Leni Robredo, and LP senatorial candidate Risa Hontiveros spent the whole day yesterday visiting the hangouts of Filipinos in this Chinese Special Administrative Region, where there are around 90,000 registered voters.
“I’m not saying that daang matuwid has now reached paradise, what I’m saying is we have come a long way. It’s like we’re building Hong Kong,” Roxas told a group of Filipino professionals and domestic helpers in a restaurant in Central district.
“It will not happen overnight but it cannot be denied that we’ve already done many things and our economy will grow faster in the coming years,” he said.
Roxas urged the Filipino workers to stay with daang matuwid and not gamble their future “as if in a casino.”
“The point I’m trying to make is have we reached Hong Kong? Not yet. But we’ve seen that our economy is growing… step by step… but if we stop, we will go back to what we had before,” he said.
For her part, Robredo promised a full review of government policies that burden overseas Filipino workers, such as the collection by training centers of excessive fees from domestic helpers that leave them heavily indebted.
Robredo said she would also review the issuance of overseas employment certificates for OFWs, and the collection of terminal fees at the Manila international airport.
At the HSBC building, Roxas was heckled by members of the militant party-list group Migrante as he went around greeting people.
One of Roxas’ campaign stops was Edinburgh Place, also in Central. It so happened that Duterte supporters also held a rally there, featuring the Mocha Girls, which got a bigger crowd.