Tycoon challenger to Arroyo's crown
By Joel D Adriano
MANILA - Manuel Villar Jr, head of the Senate and one of the Philippines'
leading businessmen, has emerged as an early contender to replace President
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo when her term is up in 2010. Although he represents a
potential pro-business alternative to Arroyo's scandal-plagued,
politics-as-usual administration, announcing his candidacy so early has left
him exposed to pre-emptive strikes by rivals.
Villar is already viewed as an early front-runner among the half-dozen
opposition hopefuls, but while Arroyo by law cannot seek re-election, a number
of her top supporters have hinted they may contest the race. Of these, only
Vice President Noli de Castro is seen as having a legitimate chance.
The opposition is currently bidding for the third time to impeach
Arroyo on election fraud charges, and in the scrutiny process they have scored
political points with a widening cross-section of the corruption-weary public.
Her supposed strong suit, economic management, has come under fire as inflation
gallops and investors question the country's ability to survive the mounting
global financial crisis.
Her recent disproved claim that the World Bank had arranged a US$10 billion
rescue package for Southeast Asian countries has also raised new doubts about
her technocratic competence.
If the factionalized opposition closes ranks, then the 56-year-old Villar is
expected to be among the top choices, along with recently released from prison
former president Joseph Estrada, and Jejomar Binay, the popular mayor of Makati,
the business district of Manila.
Estrada vowed not to seek the presidency as a condition for his early release
on economic plunder charges, but recently has hinted he may run again for the
top office.
Villar currently heads the Nacionalist Party, the
country's oldest political party, and is said to be the Philippines'
wealthiest-ever legislator. Forbes magazine last year ranked him as the Philippines' fifth richest
person, with a net worth which soared from US$110 million in 2006 to $940 million
the following year.
The upward revision resulted from last year's P13.2 billion (US$275 million)
initial public offering (IPO) last year of his Vista Land and Lifescapes Inc
investment holding company, to raise capital for several of the company's
high-end residential projects.
Villar, known as Manny, comes from humble beginnings and at an early age helped
his mother sell seafood at local markets to support his siblings and send
himself to school. He made his fortune as a real estate developer of affordable
housing through the Camella and Palmera Homes (C&P Homes) company he
founded in the 1970s, which has recently been realigned under a new brand.
Villar and his wife still hold a majority stake in Vista Land and Lifescapes
after last year's IPO.
He first entered politics in 1992, when he won a congressional seat in Las
Pinas City, a Metro Manila district and became House Speaker during his third
term in 1998. He was elected to the Senate in 2001 and in a hotly contested
appointment became the upper house's president two years ago. His wife,
Cynthia, is currently the representative for Las Pinas.
Villar has astutely played the Filipino migrant worker issue to his political
advantage, portraying himself as a champion of mistreated, abused and oppressed
low-wage laborers abroad. He has recently been at the forefront of repatriating
stranded or abused overseas workers, mostly from Middle Eastern countries, and
has in some cases reportedly even used his own personal funds to cover their
return airfare.
Such acts of political theater have been popular, judging by his
recent improved ratings in opinion polls. The Social Weather Station, a
polling agency, gave Villar a 59% net satisfaction rate in a January survey this
year, the highest among national politicians - Vice President de Castro trailed
him decidedly with a 41% ranking.
He has also tried to establish himself as a graft-buster, though his critics
take issue with the characterization. As House Speaker, he was instrumental in
impeaching former president Estrada in November 2000 on corruption and bribery
charges.
The
former actor's administration fell two months later after pro-Estrada senators
blocked the presentation of evidence, leading to the massive popular protests
which dislodged him from power and ushered in Arroyo's rise.
Middling opposition
Villar has been more ambivalent in his position towards Arroyo's
corruption-riddled government, which to date has survived various opposition
charges, including that she and her husband rigged her victory at the 2004
elections.
Her administration has also been battered by recent allegations that her
husband received kickbacks in a government-tendered broadband infrastructure
deal contracted to a Chinese company, ZTE Corporation.
Although Villar is identified with the opposition rather than the government,
he has not come out as strongly as many of his Senate colleagues and has
repeatedly refused to call for her resignation during numerous scandals.
Local business leaders see him as one of their own, while some political
analysts draw favorable parallels with Thailand's former pro-business prime
minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a billionaire telecoms tycoon with a populist
touch.
Earlier in her administration, Arroyo implemented some policies similar to
Thaksin's grassroots development schemes, but with her family's blue-blood
pedigree and her background as an economist she has failed to capture the
national imagination as a pro-poor politician.
"A working student during his college days, Manny Villar is a front-running
choice of many of the business community because of his rags-to-riches story,
which is very credible and very real," former House speaker Jose de Venecia
recently said.
Yet questions are already emerging about whether the property tycoon has played
his card too soon in the race, exposing him to early political attacks. Earlier
this month opposition Senator Jamby Madrigal filed a complaint against Villar
with the Senate ethics committee over an alleged conflict of interest involving
a P200 million insertion to the 2008 national budget for a road extension named
C-5.
The controversial C-5 project, which local media have dubbed the "road to
nowhere", was designed to improve road access to Paranaque, Villar's hometown.
Madrigal has accused Villar of using his position in the Senate to deliberately
redraw the original blueprints so they pass through his properties - for "huge
personal benefits". The Department of Budget and Management froze the project's
funds soon after the politically charged allegation was lodged.
Villar has said he requested the additional funds as the infrastructure project
involves two components - a flyover and a road - and that no corruption had
tainted the extra financing. He also stressed that his family's business, the
Brittany Corp, one of the subsidiary companies under Vista Land, had not gained
in anyway from the road project. "This is the start of a black propaganda
campaign against me to destroy my reputation," he said.
Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, who as head of the Senate's finance panel chaired a
probe into the project, found no evidence of any wrongdoing by Villar or
others, and confirmed that the additional funding was not a separate allocation
as alleged by Madrigal. The Senate's ethics committee is now looking into the
conflict of interest complaint.
To be sure, Villar has been in hot water before, including allegations raised
in the media of land grabbing through his alleged connections with the
government's Registry of Deeds. He likewise denied those allegations and the
issue has since died down without any formal charges raised.
Opponents have said that Villar's attempts to reform the country's notoriously
flawed land titling system have been at best half-hearted, while the Land
Administration Reform Act, which he classed as urgent during the last Congress,
is still pending after nearly a decade of delays.
It remains to be seen whether the road controversy will ultimately undermine
Villar's chances at the presidency. A video recently posted on the
video-sharing site YouTube lampoons senators involved in the project by pasting
their heads on people doing hip-hop dance moves. It's the type of jab
frequently made against Arroyo's government, not key members of the opposition.
While tame for now, if Villar's ratings continue to climb in opinion polls,
expect various new allegations against him to arise in the months ahead.
Joel D Adriano is an independent consultant and award-winning freelance
journalist. He was a sub-editor for the business section of The Manila Times
and writes for Asean BizTimes, Entrepreneur Philippines, Masigasig and People's
Tonight.
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