A junior political officer of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has given an unsolicited advice to Senator and aspiring presidential candidate Mar Roxas urging him to tie the knot with popular television host Miss Korina Sanchez while their engagement is bringing him points in the poll surveys.

“Strike the iron while it is hot,” was his advice.

Trailing in all previous surveys after Vice President Noli de Castro, Senator Manny Villar, Senator Chez Escudero, and lately ousted president Joseph Estrada, Roxas has virtually tied with them in the latest survey. De Castro got 17% of the more than 4,000 respondents nationwide, Escudero got 16, Estrada garnered 15, Villar, 14; and Roxas, 13.

The MILF officer, who requested anonymity, told www.luwaran.com/net that by marrying Sanchez will give him more plus factors in the battle for poll surveys and in the election in 2010:

1.The popularity of Sanchez, added to Roxas’ machinery or the Liberal Party, can be translated into actual votes comes elections in 2010;

2.His image as “Mama’s boy” will gradually ease; and

3.His marriage implies that he is already strong-willed. Critics branded Roxas as indecisive even in marriage, citing his indecisive to marry despite being linked to several women including married socialites.

Roxas earned the ire of the Bangsamoro people after he openly sided with people who were opposed to the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) in August last year.

The MOA-AD was not signed after the Philippine Supreme Court, first a temporary restraining order, and then declared it unconstitutional. But the MILF was unfazed, saying it is not a party to the case and it considered it “done deal” after it was initialed by the parties on July 27, 2008.

The MILF officer warned Roxas of serious consequences to his presidential ambition if he is all sounds but no bites (in Tagalog, puro porma) in marrying Sanchez.

He said while the MILF had felt the pang of Roxas’ tribalism by siding openly with the Ilonggo settlers in Mindanao, it is not too late for him to make amend and rectify.

He did not elaborate.