Horror of horrors, Manny Villar seems to have taken possession of my body. He haunts me everywhere I go and whatever I do. Since I no longer watch television nor listen to the radio, he stalks me on Youtube and Facebook. On the same day I saw a caravan of Villar’s supporters handing out flyers in the UP Diliman campus, a friend texted he heard the Villar ad on the MRT. Manny is anywhere and everywhere, omnipresent – like God.
Manny Villar, utang na loob, lubayan mo ako.
As I watched men in orange caps accost UP students, I wondered how much he’s been spending to win his prize. All this election spending is not a bit like our consumer-led economic growth, all hot air with no ultimate substance. Posters and flyers are printed, ads are produced and aired, thousands are hired to serve the Villar election machine. Tremendous economic energy expended…for nothing. But no, the presidency is well worth Villar’s investment. If GMA is any indication, the chief executive’s SAL has a tendency to skyrocket upon assuming office. The presidency has proven lucrative. What businessman can resist?
But does Villar stand for anything? Speak for anything? Is he, like Noynoy’s platform, driven by ideology at least? Look at the assembly of those in his roster – elements from the left, the right, current admin bureaucrats, the son of Marcos. One big happy family. Given the cast of the Manny Villar spectacle, what sorts of roles should we expect them to play? Are those who have chosen to throw their lot with Manny erring on the side of pragmatism? Principles be damned, we have to win the elections? For now Manny has acquiesced to being their sacred cash cow. But afterwards?
Villar has two messages for two different sections of the electorate. For the poor he says he is one of them. By sheer identification, he exhorts the poor to vote for him. What he will do for them to alleviate poverty is never explicitly discussed. For the non-poor he speaks of an ‘entrepreneurial revolution.’ Each time I hear him speak in forums and TV guestings, I hear nothing but platitudes a twelve-year old could deliver better. This doesn’t mean Villar isn’t smart. You need some sort of smarts to amass that fortune.
But is Manny a man who looks out for the public good? Does he even care to think about policy issues? Or does he simply want to purchase the presidency as he would any land acquisition? By the looks of it, he is pulling out all stops, using all sorts of media platform to deliver messages. We are drowning in you Manny V. You may yet pummel the electorate into submission.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Well, I suppose at least his money is being circulated in the Philippines rather than being shipped overseas or spent in NY restaurants. Now wouldn’t it be a real popper if he lost . . .
Joe
…circulated in GMA-7, ABS-CBN.
It’s called reinvestment.
I fear that his ideology could be based on “winning at any cost” which I think is a bad ideology. He was the first to start campaigning, spending millions in campaigning, using children in his ad, etc..
“I have never trusted Villar since day one. I never trust businessmen who enter politics, because in the end, their core value is and always will be profit maximization.
Now, as part of a corporate growth (or should I say corporate restructuring) plan, Villar is lusting for the highest position in the land. This scares me because Villar already has a track record of using his political position to gain the upper hand for his businesses. To save his empire and increase shareholder value of his business, Villar used his influence as Senate Finance Chair to shrewdly derail a Cavite road project that was supposed to be BUILD, OPERATE, and TRANSFER. Villar built a longer and more expensive road, the C-5 extension, adjacent to it; subsequently forcing the private investor in the initial project to pull out. The fishy thing is that this new road, longer and more expensive than the previously planned project, passed through all of Villar’s land in Cavite. It is a clear case of graft, pointing to Villar use of influence and government funds to substantially improve the values of his real estate properties. To add insult to injury the right of way the government would have to pay in order to complete the project was substantially higher for the land that Villar owned. These funds could have easily been used to build needed schools.
This scandal should be a red flag for all voters. However, the scary part is that Villar is spending billions to keep this out of the picture as he continues his attempt to brainwash our masses that he is their saviour. He convinces the masses that he is one of them. A poor boy from the slums of Tondo. In actuality, he is more like the 5-6 and syndicates, slum dwellers themselves who make a profit out of their poor brethren. Villar’s ad agencies are doing an excellent job of maintaining this image as well as doing damage control. TV and radio continues to churn out Parokya Ni Edgaresque jingles that compete with “Nobody, Nobody.” Dolphy is Villar’s new spokesperson and Wowowee is one giant ad for him. In this process of brainwashing, the masses are not cognizant of how Villar conducts business as a politician. What they do not see is a man hell bent on turning our archipelago into his own personal piece of real estate.”
- Winnie Monsod
See what Mr. Villar can do with our tax money. He is using our money to
have himself elected as our President. “Gisahing tayo sa sariling
mantika.” How stupid we all are!
Gordon will make a much better president than either NoyNoy or Villar.
No he won’t.
Will too, nyah
i agree. it’s either Gordon or Teodoro.
“There is a peculiar importance attached to the political positions in the municipalities throughout the archipelago. Many times, the candidates for municipal presidencies, positions which pay only one hundred pesos a month in first-class municipalities, lavishly spend thousands of pesos just for the sake of landing the posts. Just why they do it, is beyond the comprehension of the ordinary man in the street. Some say they do it for patriotic motives, others maintain that the candidates are after the honor that goes with the job….
“But aside from this Don Quixote attitude of the elected public official, there is also a practical consideration that goes with it; there is that prestige attached to the position, which enables him to prey upon the unsuspecting public. The story of improvised rich men, of officials who have become rich overnight, is the history of men who utilized the offices they occupied for purposes of personal enrichment and aggrandizement, of graft and bribegetting, which would require a Brann to portray in letters of glowing fire.” – dela Llana
i am a supporter of manny villar and have done a little bit of campaigning for him but i never received, expect or ask, a single centavo for it. i am certain there are millions of others out there just like me. THEY ARE JUST DOING THE RIGHT THING.
Culture of entrepreneurship starts at home…dream home…
Dream homes on farmlands.
this could mean that the HOUSING AND LAND USE REGULATORY BOARD (HLURB) did not do their job? maybe this department don’t have a map showing the different types of zoning in our country? or this department is as corrupt as Villar?
Rule of law:
who is in charge of this department? previous and current manager of this department may have some answers.
In rural areas, was there a barangay clearance. Social acceptability screened and approved by the Barangay Council. What about the department of health clearance for sewer and drainage?
nakalusot si Villar ah..
anyway, I am tired of Noynoy and Villar. Villar can manipulate people whereas Noynoy can easily be manipulated by the elites. talo pa rin ang pinoy…
Go, go, go Gibo, Gibo, Gibo, Bigo! :).
Lol bert.. Gibo ka na!!
Villar’s conversion of agricultural land to residential or commercial is a duplicate concept to that of Hacienda Luisita. Everybody must be aware that any corporation or profit hungry elites will always require raw land and convert it according to the demand and supply. MBC backing and supporting Noynoy can do an equivalent business strategy as what Villar is doing.
Citizen participation is significant to influence policymaking.
what Manny Villar is doing is a classic Blue Ocean strategy—making it hard for his opponents to “make the grade” so to speak. By making it extremely expensive to run a campaign, Villar is debilitating his opponents. Yet, as Caffeine pointed out, at the expense of democracy?
I heard last night that this elections is the most expensive one in the history of this country and its not entirely surprising at all. It’s really very nice to ask why the hell is Manny spending all those billions for a 65,000 pesos a month job? Does he know something we don’t?
summary of spending on campaign advertising..
Manny Villar – P1,000 M, 48%
Gilbert Teodoro – P 407M, 19%
Noynoy Aquino – P 268 M, 13%
Richard Gordon – P 244 M, 12%
Eddie Villanueva – P 90 M, 4%
Erap Estrada – P 84 M, 4%
Grand total – P2,093 M
all the presidentiables are spending millions to win the election. obviously Villar has the money
Sparky, does anyone running for President have an ideological framework to speak off?
At least the NEDA operates with a dogmatic ideological foundation.
All the presidential candidates simply mouth slogans.
Chronic trade deficits, chronic budget deficits, chronic energy deficits. Ballooning debts.
Now some wise guys are talking going nuclear. Though the generation costs are miniscule, the capital costs and insurance risk premiums make it impossible for the private sector to go it alone without some from of state guarantees. (Taxpayer subsidy)
I wonder how many physicists the Philippines has with PHD’s.
Third world economy looking desperately for a first world solution to politics. Never happen.
Dick Gordon is now saying an emissary of Manny Villar tried to buy him off.
It could be plausible.
But on the other Dick Gordon is a COWARD, he should say the NAME OF THE EMISSARY who allegedly tried to buy him off in front of his children even.
DUWAG KA PALA DICK GORDON, PARA KANG SI PING LACSON, HANGGANG POWERPOINT PRESENTATION KA LANG. Name and shame you moron.
No wonder Dick Gordon is at the bottom of the polls. He doesn’t have balls.
he/she/it will just deny it anyways.
Check out why Ellen Tordesillas said she will not vote for NoyNoy — emissaries from NoyNoy offered “favors” to Trillanes and Magdalo.
A Facebook fan from UK writes…
anime of this blog post:
A Certain Manny Villar Commercial Parody
Could it be, just maybe, Manny Villar is doing a Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, a billionaire seven times over (as in US dollars) who spent hundreds of million of dollars of his personal fortune for his campaign to win the mayorship of the Big Apple. He never wanted a return on his investment but rather the priviledge to exercise his management abilities and business acumen to help and pay back the city that gave him the opportunity to become a billionaire. He receives a $1 annual salary and would from time to time ride the subway to go to work. He has never been tainted with corruption or anomalies, squeaky clean. The thing with Bloomberg is early on he came to the realization that he had enough money pouring out his ears, he need not make more. He knew when enough was enough, a rare feat in a tank full of sharks. He has moved on to another chapter in his life, public service, not to enrich himself but to take his experience in his successful business career and apply it to public governance as a show of gratitude to the city that gave him so much. While most of you are speculating on Villar’s corrupt ways and his penchant to make more money if elected President, I, on the other hand gives him the benefit of the doubt and hopeful that he would be emulating Michael Bloomberg.
Campaigning for Villar is doing the right thing?
Goodness, who is this talking?
From the Civil Code of the Philippines:
Art. 25. Thoughtless extravagance in expenses for pleasure or display during a period of acute public want or emergency may be stopped by order of the courts at the instance of any government or private charitable institution.
Art. 26. Every person shall respect the dignity, personality, privacy and peace of mind of his neighbors and other persons. The following and similar acts, though they may not constitute a criminal offense, shall produce a cause of action for damages, prevention and other relief:
(1) Prying into the privacy of another’s residence:
(2) Meddling with or disturbing the private life or family relations of another;
(3) Intriguing to cause another to be alienated from his friends;
(4) Vexing or humiliating another on account of his religious beliefs, lowly station in life, place of birth, physical defect, or other personal condition.
I bet your basing your opinions on the question: Why Manny Villar is spending this much? Now, may I ask you if what are the implications why he is spending his own money for his own presidential campaign? Because he does not want to be associated to these “Paid for by friends of __” people. I don’t know who they exactly are (I can think of some, I’m sure you can too) but I can surely tell you that these mysterious people have their own business-like agenda much worst than what you’re accusing of Manny Villar. The whole nation would be their chess piece for their own personal gains. If ever these presidentiable will win, these so-called “friends” would be asking for payment / ROI from that person through “utang na loob”. Malaking problema yan. Tailor fitting the law or the economic plans for their own gains. Malaking problema yan.
Also, to date, no one has filed a case against Manny Villar. Any accusations unless proven at court (assuming a fair trial for all) are just mere black propagandas.
Postcript: It’s not bad for businessmen to run for public positions. They’re more effective than lawyers and/or politicians by nature of profession, but much less than scientists and engineers – who by far knows how the word “development” in general can be achieved.
Mr. B.I. won’t vote for Villar. [Click here to find out.]
Why am I wondering about ROI?