Last Tuesday, we detailed how Manny Villar and his housing corporations made its billions, piggy-backing on the monies of the Republic of the Philippines. By a scheme called “takeout”, Camella and Palmera, among others, sold socialized cost housing units to any Tom, Dick and Harry, regardless of whether these Toms and Dicks could afford the monthly instalments. Then, they turned around to the NHMFC, and through the United Home Lending Program, they were paid the value of the houses sold, in cash. Because many of the buyers, in fact more than half of them, could not pay the mortgaged units, the government was left holding the proverbial empty bag. The housing deals made Villar happy and awash with billions in profits. But Juan de la Cruz, though he did not know it then, has every reason to be unhappy. The un-collected mortgages were charged to the Republic.
Villar went for the even bigger deals. He bought every available piece of land in Bacoor, Imus, Muntinglupa, San Pedro and Las Pinas, even Cebu, Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Iloilo, and other bustling parts of the benighted land. These were financed by huge dollar-denominated borrowings just at the time that FVR de-regulated banking restrictions on foreign exchange. And to make sure the loans were easily facilitated, Villar had a bank to boot – Capitol Bank, which was re-packaged from the ashes of a previously failed bank. And his wife was the CEO of Capitol Bank.
But then, the heavens caved in when an overheated, over-expanded Southeast Asia suddenly got caught in the throes of a major recession. Hardest hit was Thailand, where several mega-billionaires jumped desperately from buildings to their death. Manny Villar, earlier basking in recognition as the “brown taipan”, suddenly felt the ground shake beneath his billion-peso empire. It must have been akin to Intensity 8. But smart Filipinos do not commit hara-kiri. They enter politics, and then dump their liabilities on the Republic. Again, bahala na si Juan de la Cruz.
In 1998, Capitol Bank borrowed emergency loans in four tranches from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. Earlier in this space, I thought Cynthia Villar and Anacordita Magno’s signed promissory notes were only for 1.168 billion and 332 million, respectively, for a total of 1.5 billion pesos. And I thought that the bulk of the properties mortgaged and later foreclosed was the Norzagaray ancestral land occupied by Dumagats and remontados.
It turns out I barely scratched the surface of the iceberg, with documents provided by long-suffering and long-complaining farmers. For now, Bangko Sentral insiders, shocked at the kind of investigation they would have to weather after June 30,2010 from an incensed people who would want closure and justice from several financial scandals and gross violations of anti-graft and plunder laws, and seeing how their top officials continue to stonewall, obfuscate and even prevaricate, supplied us with evidentiary documents proving that it was not just 1.5 billion pesos that the BSP in 1998 doled out to the insolvent Capitol Bank, but 4.5 billion!
On March 20, 1998, 2 billion pesos was released. Six days after, on March 26, another 1 billion was granted. Then on April 22, 1.168 billion, followed by 332 million two days after. For a grand total of 4.5 billion pesos. All of these happened while Manuel Villar Jr. was running unopposed for a third term as congressman of the lone district of Las Pinas under the ticket of Lakas-NUCD, whose standard-bearer was Jose de Venecia, then Speaker of the House of Representatives.
But another person trumped De Venecia, winning in every city and municipality of Metro Manila, except in the Villar-Aguilar fiefdom called Las Pinas. Strangely, Erap made Villar speaker after he was elected and proclaimed president, leaving Joker Arroyo of Makati and Bibit Duavit of the NPC and Rizal, out in the cold. This was a decision I objected to, as then newly-named Presidential Adviser on Political Affairs, albeit awaiting the official oath-taking, because I have a personal dislike, then and now, for political turncoatism. But the president had decided. Two years and five months later, the decision to adopt Villar as his Speaker must have caused Erap deep regrets. For Villar impeached him and forthwith, “like a thief in the night”, sent the articles of impeachment to the Senate for trial.
As Speaker, Villar was an awesome power the “independent” Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the Monetary Board had to contend with. The promissory notes remained unpaid long after their six-month term expired. Thus, the BSP, through its Department of Loans and Credit, wrote the Optimum Development Bank, on December 13, 1999, the successor bank of Capitol Development Bank which had earlier closed down, reminding them of a total obligation of “PhP Four Billion Three Hundred Forty Million Three Hundred Seventy Four Thousand Seven Hundred Seventy Pesos and 71 centavos, EXCLUSIVE of the corresponding accrued interest and liquidated damages”.
“Because of this, we have been given definite instruction(s) to initiate legal action against you and the real estate mortgage(s) securing the said amount…Consider this as our FINAL demand”.
Cutting a long story short, the Bangko Sentral foreclosed on the properties mortgaged to it by Capitol Development Bank. Deeds of real estate mortgage executed by several Villar corporations, such as Optimum, Adelfa, Palmera, Manila Brickworks, Capitol, Carissa, Household Development, etc. etc. etc., were hastily signed from 2000 to 2001 by Anacordita Magno,and Jerry Navarrete, during which time Villar had already successfully dumped Erap in favour of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and in fact, become senator of the realm in May 2001, while the transfers were yet being made to the BSP, which accepted the said “titles” through Andres I. Rustia, Managing Director of the Department of Loans, Credit and Asset Management.
In an announcement made via an ad in this paper reacting to the questions posed before it by farmer’s groups and NGO’s assisting the Norzagaray farmers, the BSP now says (1) they exercised due diligence in ascertaining the validity of land titles mortgaged to it; (2) they had to act fast as lender of last resort; (3) they took appropriate legal steps to protects their rights as creditor; and (4) the claims of the Norzagaray farmes are now pending litigation and BSP would abide by the decision of the appropriate courts”.
In short, the people of the Republic, whose money entrusted to the bank of banks, to the tune of 4.5 billion pesos excluding interest, will just have to accept the “good word” of its fiduciary trustee that everything was done in order, and everything was protective of their interest. The farmers dispossessed of legal title to their land will just have to grin and bear it, because the Bank said so, and will have to await decision by the courts of justice in a land where justice is for sale, or if not so in certain exceptions, is blind to the plight of the powerless when pitted against the powerful. And Manuel Villar Jr. is about to be the most powerful man in this land for the next six years, if God and the people cannot help it.
It turns out though that the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas not only accepted overlapping Norzagaray titles with faked provenance. It also accepted marginal properties in Teresa, Rizal, among others, and accepted the Villar corporation’s claimed valuations thereof which in most cases were FIVE to SIX times their market value at the time! Just as an example, TCT No. M-71887 with a Tax Declaration market value of 30,000 pesos, was accepted by the BSp at the declared collateral value of 211,400, and a 70% loan value of 148,000 pesos. TCT M-71925n worth 16,000 pesos was accepted at a collateral value of 149,950 pesos with a loan value of 105,000 pesos. And so on and so forth, through page after page of enumerated real estate “garbage”.
Tell you what. In 1978, my old folks had to borrow from a commercial bank so we could rebuild a commercial property in Butuan City that was burned down without appropriate insurance. The property we hocked was given a loan value of only 60% of market. How many of us lesser mortals have had to plead with our banks to please, oh Lord please, give us more value for our precious little assets when we need the loan so very badly?
Ah, but as F. Scott Fitzgerald said, “the rich are different from you and I”. And in this benighted land, the supra-powerful, like a senator and congresswoman, a Speaker at that, and a Senate President even, are certainly different from you and I.
Even insofar as the “independent” Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is concerned.
The moral of the story of Manny Villar’s billions? It pays to be powerful. It pays to abuse your power.
You make an obscene amount of billions not through “sipag at tiyaga” but through cunning and deceit and the arrogant abuse of power. And when you lose those billions, either through recklessness or sheer misfortune, no need to worry…you can always charge it to poor Juan de la Cruz. You can inflate the value of your :garbage”, dump it upon a trusting and submissive Bank of Banks, and just relax. And then, using all the monies you could scoop out of the public works budget, your collective pork barrel (his and hers) and even budgetary insertions, you can cause the building of spanking new highways to traverse your choice properties (C-5, Daang Hari, Daang Reyna, etc.) the better to increase their value and marketability, no longer as “low-cost” houses, but as Italianate or Mediterranean-inspired homes for the nouveau riche.
And then put together your by now freed-from debt corporations, thanks to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and other banks left holding garbage-filled bags into one corporate flagship. Then you go to the Philippine Stock Exchange and have the new flagship sold to the gullible public in the form of initial public offerings of hyped-up shares of stock. And when you foresee rough economic times ahead, because of an economic recession triggered in similar but bigger fashion in the ultra-rich United States of A, dump those shares of stock, take the money, and run for President of the benighted Republic whose citizens and institutions and public monies you have used, abused and hood-winked.
No. Gibo is not “galing at talino”. Gloria is. And most certainly, perhaps even more “galing at talino” than Gloria and her Mike, her Mikey y ademas relaciones, is Senor Manny Villar, er, Money Villarroyo.
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for Thursday, 29 April 2010
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Charge it to the Republic
Many of those who staked everything at Edsa in 1986 had hoped that things would change, beyond just mere democratic space. But there were those who never staked anything in Edsa, yet figured they could make oodles of money by taking advantage of Cory Aquino’s sincere desire to make democracy work for the under-privileged.
The Aquino reform government was held hostage by as many as nine coup attempts, some minor adventurist plots, some as damaging as the 1987 and 1989 coup attempts. But while the coup plotters were busy threatening Cory’s presidency, some who never fought Marcos, in fact, collaborated with the dictatorship till the end, quietly made money. As the late Ricardo Manapat once wrote, “some are smarter than others”, describing men and women who in the heyday of the dictatorship, took advantage of power or proximity to power, to feather their own nests so thickly. In the Cory days, and beyond, there have always been people who made piles and piles of hay, using “other people’s money”. Those other people were/are the taxpayers of this benighted land.
The Wikipedia page on Manny Villar tells us: “After (the) EDSA revolution, Mr. Villar and his colleagues in the Chamber of Real Estate and Builders Associations (CREBA) influenced the Aquino administration in launching an aggressive mortgage financing program, the Unified Home Lending Program (UHLP) of the National Home Finance Mortgage Corporation (NHMFC) and the Pag-Ibig Fund. NHMFC, the financial coordinator of the program, was bankrupted. The funders (SSS, GSIS, Pag-Ibig) were stuck with billions in bad home mortgages covering Villar's houses and flirted with bankruptcy for a while. Eventually, these bad mortgages had to be covered by the national government using its tax revenues.”
Tony Hidalgo, Secretary General of HUDCC during the Ramos administration, put it even more bluntly in emails he wrote about Manny Villar: “He is also guilty of making billions out of government funds for socialized housing through a questionable, unsustainable scheme that nearly destroyed our financial system in the 90's… It's a bit complicated, but I was right there, trying to stop what was essentially Villar's scheme as HUDCC (housing) Secretary-General. Fortunately, we succeeded (Dept. of Finance, Pag-Ibig Fund, SSS, GSIS, HUDCC, HIGC-I was head of the multi-agency Task Force that did this) and avoided a financial disaster in the Philippines that would have preceded the similar one that recently hit the US and hurt the world economy… It started when Cory became president. Villar, through the CREBA he controlled, drafted a socialized housing law to spur low-cost housing in the country. Cory approved it with her emergency powers, not seeing through Villar's scheme… To oversimplify, the law required the SSS, GSIS, and Pag-Ibig Fund to put billions of pesos of their funds each year into a fund for mortgages for low-cost housing (defined initially as 150 thousand maximum, later going up to 250 thousand through the years). This fund would be managed by the National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. (NHMFC - an agency of HUDCC). The NHMFC then established quotas for allocating the annual common funds of SSS, Pag-Ibig, and GSIS based on the building capacities of registered developers. The largest quotas every year were for the Camelia and Palmera (C & P) company of Villar which got a very large chunk of the funds for their home mortgages.”
A research team tried to put numbers on the anecdotal statements of Mr. Hidalgo to get a better sense of how much Manny Villar actually benefited from the UHLP program. How he made his first big “killing”, using public monies. Smart guy Villar truly was, and is. Smart at making obscenely huge amounts of money, using high-finance legerdemain, and later, using politics and the corridors of power to amass more, or to cover-up for his abuse of such power.
An internal HUDCC report dated October 16, 1998 indicated that UHLP takeouts from November 1987 to April 1996 (when the UHLP was terminated) amounted to a staggering 42.123 billion pesos. The beneficiaries of the takeouts were developers/originators that sold lots and/or houses to low-income buyers with financing provided by UHLP. According to HUDCC, the single largest beneficiary of the UHLP program were companies owned/controlled by Manny Villar which accounted for about Php7.8 billion of loan takeouts, or about 18.5% of the total. The report also stated that the collection efficiency (defined as collections received by NHMFC divided by the total amount of principal, interest and penalty payments due) of the Villar corporate flagship was 47.3%, which was lower than the average collection efficiency of 53.7% experienced for all UHLP developers/originators.
The 1998 HUDCC report does not provide the total amount of payments due. However, present NHMFC records show that, as of December 31, 2002 (i.e., before the UHLP portfolio was restructured and partially sold), the amount of unpaid principal was about Php33 billion, or approximately 78% of the original Php42 billion of takeouts. Since the Villar companies’ overall collection efficiency was lower than the average for the entire UHLP portfolio, we can assume that the amount of unpaid principal for Villar companies is also more than the average. However, even if Villar’s past due equaled the average, this would mean that the Unified Home Lending Program was unable to collect at least 78% – or about Php6 billion – of the Php7.8 billion principal amount of loans it granted buyers of Villar-developed properties.
Another big developer, by the way, is E.B. Villarosa (there must be something in the names) with an awful collection efficiency of only 25.7%. But Villarosa (any relation to Girlie, the acting Pa-La-Ka chair who is chummy-chummy with Villar, I have not bothered to research)
Between 1987 to 1996, companies owned or controlled by Manny Villar obtained takeouts for their end-buyers totaling approximately 7.776 billion pesos, or about 18.5% of the total takeout amount of Php42.123 billion. As a group, Villar companies obtained the largest amount of takeouts from the UHLP program. The term “takeout” only applies to the original principal amount of the loan obtained by the end-buyers of the houses/lots sold by the developers/originators; at the UHLP annual interest rates of 9%, 12% or 16% (depending on the size of the takeout) – which were subsidized rates and therefore much lower than prevailing market interest rates – the total debt amounts (consisting of the original principal amounts plus cumulative interest and penalties since 1987) would have amounted to over Php71 billion by December 31, 2002.
The UHLP’s collection efficiency actually fell after 1992 (i.e., the year that Villar became a congressman), with its overall collection efficiency dropping from 62.3% from 1987‑June 1992 down to 48.1% from July 1992‑April 1996; during the two periods, the collection efficiency of the Villar companies deteriorated dramatically from 60.8% for the 1987‑June 1992 period down to 39.3% from July 1992 onwards.
The amount of UHLP takeouts increased significantly after 1992. From November 1987 through June 1992, UHLP takeouts averaged about Php220 million per month (or around Php2.6 billion per year). However, from July 1992 through April 1996, takeouts nearly tripled, averaging approximately Php647 million per month (or about Php7.8 billion per year) despite the fact that collection efficiency dropped from 62.3% to 48.1%. Total takeouts by Villar companies increased from around Php38 million per month before July 1992 to about Php122 million per month after he became a congressman. To quote Winnie Monsod, “Being in public office surely has paid off for [Manny Villar].”
To run a successful business, several key operating risks have to be addressed. These risks include selling risk, pricing risk and collection risk. You need to find buyers for your product or service. You need to be able to sell at prices that cover your cost plus overhead, and make a profit as well. And you need to collect enough of your sales to be able to stay in business.
In the case of low-cost housing, the demand was, and is, significant. The problem was the capacity of prospective buyers to pay for the units they purchased. But what if you pass on the risk to government, and just sell units without paying heed of whether the buyers can or cannot pay the future installments on their housing units? The government thus foots the bill, while the real estate developer just keeps building and selling houses to people who may not have the capability to pay, to begin with. Sell and sell, and dump the receivables to government, its housing agencies, its pension funds.. Great business, neh? Just pass the bill to the collective Juan de la Cruz..
The key flaw in the UHLP/NHMFC program lay in government providing a 100% takeout, and in allowing the real estate developers to trick it into being responsible for collecting from the end-buyers.
We are not certain about the profit margins of the Villar socialized housing units. But it would seem apparent that if the NHMFC was unable to collect on 78% of the principal amount of the takeouts and Villar’s firms accounted for 7.8 billion pesos of the takeouts, then his companies made billions, while government held the proverbial empty bag of delinquent payments, and in some cases, even “ghost” buyers and therefore, non-existent “receivables”.
So this is the provenance of Villar’s first billions. He got it from government, which in turn charged the whole mess to the people of this ever-benighted land.
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for Tuesday, 27 April 2010
The Aquino reform government was held hostage by as many as nine coup attempts, some minor adventurist plots, some as damaging as the 1987 and 1989 coup attempts. But while the coup plotters were busy threatening Cory’s presidency, some who never fought Marcos, in fact, collaborated with the dictatorship till the end, quietly made money. As the late Ricardo Manapat once wrote, “some are smarter than others”, describing men and women who in the heyday of the dictatorship, took advantage of power or proximity to power, to feather their own nests so thickly. In the Cory days, and beyond, there have always been people who made piles and piles of hay, using “other people’s money”. Those other people were/are the taxpayers of this benighted land.
The Wikipedia page on Manny Villar tells us: “After (the) EDSA revolution, Mr. Villar and his colleagues in the Chamber of Real Estate and Builders Associations (CREBA) influenced the Aquino administration in launching an aggressive mortgage financing program, the Unified Home Lending Program (UHLP) of the National Home Finance Mortgage Corporation (NHMFC) and the Pag-Ibig Fund. NHMFC, the financial coordinator of the program, was bankrupted. The funders (SSS, GSIS, Pag-Ibig) were stuck with billions in bad home mortgages covering Villar's houses and flirted with bankruptcy for a while. Eventually, these bad mortgages had to be covered by the national government using its tax revenues.”
Tony Hidalgo, Secretary General of HUDCC during the Ramos administration, put it even more bluntly in emails he wrote about Manny Villar: “He is also guilty of making billions out of government funds for socialized housing through a questionable, unsustainable scheme that nearly destroyed our financial system in the 90's… It's a bit complicated, but I was right there, trying to stop what was essentially Villar's scheme as HUDCC (housing) Secretary-General. Fortunately, we succeeded (Dept. of Finance, Pag-Ibig Fund, SSS, GSIS, HUDCC, HIGC-I was head of the multi-agency Task Force that did this) and avoided a financial disaster in the Philippines that would have preceded the similar one that recently hit the US and hurt the world economy… It started when Cory became president. Villar, through the CREBA he controlled, drafted a socialized housing law to spur low-cost housing in the country. Cory approved it with her emergency powers, not seeing through Villar's scheme… To oversimplify, the law required the SSS, GSIS, and Pag-Ibig Fund to put billions of pesos of their funds each year into a fund for mortgages for low-cost housing (defined initially as 150 thousand maximum, later going up to 250 thousand through the years). This fund would be managed by the National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. (NHMFC - an agency of HUDCC). The NHMFC then established quotas for allocating the annual common funds of SSS, Pag-Ibig, and GSIS based on the building capacities of registered developers. The largest quotas every year were for the Camelia and Palmera (C & P) company of Villar which got a very large chunk of the funds for their home mortgages.”
A research team tried to put numbers on the anecdotal statements of Mr. Hidalgo to get a better sense of how much Manny Villar actually benefited from the UHLP program. How he made his first big “killing”, using public monies. Smart guy Villar truly was, and is. Smart at making obscenely huge amounts of money, using high-finance legerdemain, and later, using politics and the corridors of power to amass more, or to cover-up for his abuse of such power.
An internal HUDCC report dated October 16, 1998 indicated that UHLP takeouts from November 1987 to April 1996 (when the UHLP was terminated) amounted to a staggering 42.123 billion pesos. The beneficiaries of the takeouts were developers/originators that sold lots and/or houses to low-income buyers with financing provided by UHLP. According to HUDCC, the single largest beneficiary of the UHLP program were companies owned/controlled by Manny Villar which accounted for about Php7.8 billion of loan takeouts, or about 18.5% of the total. The report also stated that the collection efficiency (defined as collections received by NHMFC divided by the total amount of principal, interest and penalty payments due) of the Villar corporate flagship was 47.3%, which was lower than the average collection efficiency of 53.7% experienced for all UHLP developers/originators.
The 1998 HUDCC report does not provide the total amount of payments due. However, present NHMFC records show that, as of December 31, 2002 (i.e., before the UHLP portfolio was restructured and partially sold), the amount of unpaid principal was about Php33 billion, or approximately 78% of the original Php42 billion of takeouts. Since the Villar companies’ overall collection efficiency was lower than the average for the entire UHLP portfolio, we can assume that the amount of unpaid principal for Villar companies is also more than the average. However, even if Villar’s past due equaled the average, this would mean that the Unified Home Lending Program was unable to collect at least 78% – or about Php6 billion – of the Php7.8 billion principal amount of loans it granted buyers of Villar-developed properties.
Another big developer, by the way, is E.B. Villarosa (there must be something in the names) with an awful collection efficiency of only 25.7%. But Villarosa (any relation to Girlie, the acting Pa-La-Ka chair who is chummy-chummy with Villar, I have not bothered to research)
Between 1987 to 1996, companies owned or controlled by Manny Villar obtained takeouts for their end-buyers totaling approximately 7.776 billion pesos, or about 18.5% of the total takeout amount of Php42.123 billion. As a group, Villar companies obtained the largest amount of takeouts from the UHLP program. The term “takeout” only applies to the original principal amount of the loan obtained by the end-buyers of the houses/lots sold by the developers/originators; at the UHLP annual interest rates of 9%, 12% or 16% (depending on the size of the takeout) – which were subsidized rates and therefore much lower than prevailing market interest rates – the total debt amounts (consisting of the original principal amounts plus cumulative interest and penalties since 1987) would have amounted to over Php71 billion by December 31, 2002.
The UHLP’s collection efficiency actually fell after 1992 (i.e., the year that Villar became a congressman), with its overall collection efficiency dropping from 62.3% from 1987‑June 1992 down to 48.1% from July 1992‑April 1996; during the two periods, the collection efficiency of the Villar companies deteriorated dramatically from 60.8% for the 1987‑June 1992 period down to 39.3% from July 1992 onwards.
The amount of UHLP takeouts increased significantly after 1992. From November 1987 through June 1992, UHLP takeouts averaged about Php220 million per month (or around Php2.6 billion per year). However, from July 1992 through April 1996, takeouts nearly tripled, averaging approximately Php647 million per month (or about Php7.8 billion per year) despite the fact that collection efficiency dropped from 62.3% to 48.1%. Total takeouts by Villar companies increased from around Php38 million per month before July 1992 to about Php122 million per month after he became a congressman. To quote Winnie Monsod, “Being in public office surely has paid off for [Manny Villar].”
To run a successful business, several key operating risks have to be addressed. These risks include selling risk, pricing risk and collection risk. You need to find buyers for your product or service. You need to be able to sell at prices that cover your cost plus overhead, and make a profit as well. And you need to collect enough of your sales to be able to stay in business.
In the case of low-cost housing, the demand was, and is, significant. The problem was the capacity of prospective buyers to pay for the units they purchased. But what if you pass on the risk to government, and just sell units without paying heed of whether the buyers can or cannot pay the future installments on their housing units? The government thus foots the bill, while the real estate developer just keeps building and selling houses to people who may not have the capability to pay, to begin with. Sell and sell, and dump the receivables to government, its housing agencies, its pension funds.. Great business, neh? Just pass the bill to the collective Juan de la Cruz..
The key flaw in the UHLP/NHMFC program lay in government providing a 100% takeout, and in allowing the real estate developers to trick it into being responsible for collecting from the end-buyers.
We are not certain about the profit margins of the Villar socialized housing units. But it would seem apparent that if the NHMFC was unable to collect on 78% of the principal amount of the takeouts and Villar’s firms accounted for 7.8 billion pesos of the takeouts, then his companies made billions, while government held the proverbial empty bag of delinquent payments, and in some cases, even “ghost” buyers and therefore, non-existent “receivables”.
So this is the provenance of Villar’s first billions. He got it from government, which in turn charged the whole mess to the people of this ever-benighted land.
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for Tuesday, 27 April 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
The homestretch
Last March 5, I wrote an article entitled “Time to take stock” in this space. It was then about four weeks since the official campaign period began. I wrote it just before Pulse Asia and SWS would release the results of their field surveys undertaken in the last week of February, or some 20 to 24 days since the campaign began. I said then that the previous surveys had Noynoy Aquino and Manny Villar so close to each other, with the latter leading by as little as two percentage points.
March 5 was a Friday, and if my recollection is right, Pulse came out with its survey results three days after. Noynoy had increased his lead over Villar by 7 points. Erap had gained some, and Gibo languished in single-digit territory.
It is now 17 days before D-Day. The moment of truth is upon all the candidates. The moment of decision is upon the people. The latest survey findings I have seen which I cannot pre-empt show that Noynoy has widened his lead over Villar from 7 points in end-February to 12 points in end-March, and now, as of mid-April, to 14 points. In another private survey which is not likely to be released by the one who commissioned it for private eyes, it was a 15-point lead.
Noynoy’s numbers have not exactly increased, give or take a point or three. But Villar’s numbers have precariously dropped. Though I won’t call it a free-fall, the fact is that the decline has not been arrested for two months now.
The big surprise of this election campaign is how the underestimated Erap has come back from behind, hobbled initially by doubts (mine included) about the legality of his second run. That the Comelec has allowed him to continue has bolstered his numbers. That plus the silence or inaction of the Supreme Court where I understand an appeal had been filed against the Comelec ruling, means that Erap most likely will stay the course.
In the latest surveys that I have seen, Erap is perched so close behind Manny Villar. In one of the surveys, he is just two points behind. If Manny’s numbers keep dipping, Erap should be ahead in the next round of surveys, to be released just a few days before the elections of May 10. In Pilipino, “mauungusan na si Manny”.
Come what may, Erap will remain a major player in Philippine politics for the rest of his mortal life. He has proven to all observers that he does have a hold on a loyal 15% of the electorate. In 2013 and 2016, even as more of those loyalists may be too old to vote, his endorsement would still matter.
The other big surprise of this campaign is the fantastic rise of Jojo Binay. For quite some time he had been languishing in single-digit territory. But with well-crafted ads touting his achievements in Makati, he became double-digit at the start of the campaign, though a wide gap still remained between him and second-placer Loren Legarda. With amazing tenacity, Jojo has held on, and after mending political fences in his fiefdom of Makati, where local surveys show his son Jun-Jun is comfortably ahead, he has now reached statistical tie with twice-senatorial topnotcher Loren. And this is Jojo’s maiden appearance in the national political scene.
Mar Roxas has nothing to worry about, as clearly Jojo, if he beats Loren, will yet end up numero dos in the VP race. Mar’s win is a foregone conclusion. Still and all, Jojo is a class act, by all the markers of political strategy and tactics.
As for the administration’s yet official candidate, Gilbert Teodoro, his numbers have lately been going up at the rate of one percentage point every week, after getting stuck at 6% from the start of the official campaign period. The latest surveys I have seen says he has 9%, while another says he has 8%. Two weeks and a half before D-Day, 9% is not likely to get any higher, even at increased rate, than 12%, and that is assuming that a third of the undecided vote for the “dejado” instead of the “llamado”. That would fly against the bandwagon culture, but I would be pleasantly surprised if that does happen.
So what is my fearless forecast? Noynoy-Mar. With Erap-Binay at Number Two. Or possibly Villar-Binay at number two, and Erap-Loren a close third.
Of course, fearless forecasts do not consider the risks of an automated Garci, as my friend Gus Lagman, who was with me in planning the anti-Marcos Makati rallies back in 1983, calls the looming hazard of the Venezuelan company called Smartmatic.
Last-minute money will give a small perk, but by and large, with the margins between 14-15, local executives will just use the presidentiable’s money either to ensure his mayoralty or congressional win, or pocket the same altogether. It can buy the local incumbent a new luxury car, or the wife a fabulous bauble from Hong Kong jewellers. As the sad spectacle of Gibo’s reliance on “party machinery” is showing, you cannot anchor a presidential run on flags of convenience.
So it’s time to watch out for the cleaners, er … cheaters. A parallel manual count is most ideal; a random audit less than assuring. Better to just pray that the fear of the Lord will strike the hearts of the malefactors.
But given the temper of the times and the desperate yearning of the people for change, which they patiently kept via the electoral route, an automated Garci or any devious variant that would lead to a failure to proclaim, or worse, a failure to exercise the fundamental right of free choice, will lead to a political crisis unlike any other since 1986.
It’s only 17 days distant, and look at the Dona’s eyebags. It’s make or break.
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for Friday, 23 April 2010
March 5 was a Friday, and if my recollection is right, Pulse came out with its survey results three days after. Noynoy had increased his lead over Villar by 7 points. Erap had gained some, and Gibo languished in single-digit territory.
It is now 17 days before D-Day. The moment of truth is upon all the candidates. The moment of decision is upon the people. The latest survey findings I have seen which I cannot pre-empt show that Noynoy has widened his lead over Villar from 7 points in end-February to 12 points in end-March, and now, as of mid-April, to 14 points. In another private survey which is not likely to be released by the one who commissioned it for private eyes, it was a 15-point lead.
Noynoy’s numbers have not exactly increased, give or take a point or three. But Villar’s numbers have precariously dropped. Though I won’t call it a free-fall, the fact is that the decline has not been arrested for two months now.
The big surprise of this election campaign is how the underestimated Erap has come back from behind, hobbled initially by doubts (mine included) about the legality of his second run. That the Comelec has allowed him to continue has bolstered his numbers. That plus the silence or inaction of the Supreme Court where I understand an appeal had been filed against the Comelec ruling, means that Erap most likely will stay the course.
In the latest surveys that I have seen, Erap is perched so close behind Manny Villar. In one of the surveys, he is just two points behind. If Manny’s numbers keep dipping, Erap should be ahead in the next round of surveys, to be released just a few days before the elections of May 10. In Pilipino, “mauungusan na si Manny”.
Come what may, Erap will remain a major player in Philippine politics for the rest of his mortal life. He has proven to all observers that he does have a hold on a loyal 15% of the electorate. In 2013 and 2016, even as more of those loyalists may be too old to vote, his endorsement would still matter.
The other big surprise of this campaign is the fantastic rise of Jojo Binay. For quite some time he had been languishing in single-digit territory. But with well-crafted ads touting his achievements in Makati, he became double-digit at the start of the campaign, though a wide gap still remained between him and second-placer Loren Legarda. With amazing tenacity, Jojo has held on, and after mending political fences in his fiefdom of Makati, where local surveys show his son Jun-Jun is comfortably ahead, he has now reached statistical tie with twice-senatorial topnotcher Loren. And this is Jojo’s maiden appearance in the national political scene.
Mar Roxas has nothing to worry about, as clearly Jojo, if he beats Loren, will yet end up numero dos in the VP race. Mar’s win is a foregone conclusion. Still and all, Jojo is a class act, by all the markers of political strategy and tactics.
As for the administration’s yet official candidate, Gilbert Teodoro, his numbers have lately been going up at the rate of one percentage point every week, after getting stuck at 6% from the start of the official campaign period. The latest surveys I have seen says he has 9%, while another says he has 8%. Two weeks and a half before D-Day, 9% is not likely to get any higher, even at increased rate, than 12%, and that is assuming that a third of the undecided vote for the “dejado” instead of the “llamado”. That would fly against the bandwagon culture, but I would be pleasantly surprised if that does happen.
So what is my fearless forecast? Noynoy-Mar. With Erap-Binay at Number Two. Or possibly Villar-Binay at number two, and Erap-Loren a close third.
Of course, fearless forecasts do not consider the risks of an automated Garci, as my friend Gus Lagman, who was with me in planning the anti-Marcos Makati rallies back in 1983, calls the looming hazard of the Venezuelan company called Smartmatic.
Last-minute money will give a small perk, but by and large, with the margins between 14-15, local executives will just use the presidentiable’s money either to ensure his mayoralty or congressional win, or pocket the same altogether. It can buy the local incumbent a new luxury car, or the wife a fabulous bauble from Hong Kong jewellers. As the sad spectacle of Gibo’s reliance on “party machinery” is showing, you cannot anchor a presidential run on flags of convenience.
So it’s time to watch out for the cleaners, er … cheaters. A parallel manual count is most ideal; a random audit less than assuring. Better to just pray that the fear of the Lord will strike the hearts of the malefactors.
But given the temper of the times and the desperate yearning of the people for change, which they patiently kept via the electoral route, an automated Garci or any devious variant that would lead to a failure to proclaim, or worse, a failure to exercise the fundamental right of free choice, will lead to a political crisis unlike any other since 1986.
It’s only 17 days distant, and look at the Dona’s eyebags. It’s make or break.
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for Friday, 23 April 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
A place called Savannah
I do not know if you have come across a well-researched video documentary in the Net about a place called Savannah. It was put together through the efforts of Manuel Mejorada of Iloilo. This article is really Boy Mejorada’s work.
Boy shows how Manny Villar, through his Crown Communities, Inc., violated the law, circumvented regulations, sabotaged the country’s food security program and undermined the agrarian reform program. It also shows that Villar, contrary to his claim that he will lift the poor from poverty, displaced farmer-beneficiaries of land reform from their only means of livelihood and caused them to drown in a sea of misery.
Savannah Subdivision is Villar’s Panay flagship in Pavia and Oton, towns adjacent to the spanking international airport in Sta. Barbara, on the way to Panay’s queen city of Iloilo.
It began in 1994 when Villar started scouting for an area where to put up the project. Villar saw the lands in Barangays Jibao-an in Pavia, Abilay Norte and Pulo Maestra Vita in Oton, as an ideal location. The cost of the lands was dirt-cheap compared to potential locations within the city. From a real estate developers’ point of view, it was ideal for a housing development.
There was just one catch: the lands were covered by agrarian reform, and these were classified as first-class irrigated rice lands. This fact alone would trigger alarm bells in the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), which has the mandate to regulate the conversion of agricultural lands to other purposes. As then DAR regional director Elmo Banares said, such lands are categorized as “non-negotiable”. These lands are ineligible for conversion.
Moreover, the agrarian reform statutes --- PD 27 and Republic Act No. 6657 --- prohibits the transfer of ownership over lands given to farmer beneficiaries except to “qualified” individuals or the government. By qualified individuals, the law means other landless farmers who deserve to till their own lands. The purpose is obvious: the law wants keep its productive rice lands intact, and the farm lands awarded to farmer beneficiaries form the nucleus of this rice production program.
But Villar was undaunted. Nothing could stop him from achieving his goal of reaping huge profits from his real estate business. Each peso he puts into a project comes back to him a thousand or two thousand-fold. For Villar, the law is a minor obstacle. He had the clout and influence to bend the law, and the money to make regulators bow to his will. What happened in the Savannah subdivision project shows that massive corruption paved the way for Villar to obtain favorable decisions and recommendations from various agencies. In the end, Villar got what the law forbade.
What laws and regulations did Villar break?
1. Sec. 27, RA 6657 (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law) – Transferability of Awarded Lands: Lands acquired by beneficiaries under Act may not be sold, transferred or conveyed except through hereditary succession or to the government or to the LBP or to other qualified beneficiaries for a period of ten (10) years
The same section provides that in the event the land is transferred to any other beneficiary, that new owner “shall cultivate the land himself.”
2. Presidential Decree No. 27: “Title to land acquired pursuant to this Decree or the Land Reform Program of the Government shall not be transferable except by hereditary succession or to the Government xxx.”
3. Section 1, Sub-section B (Governing Policies), Paragraph 1 of Administrative Order No. 363 issued by President Fidel V. Ramos issued on October 9, 1997:
The following areas shall not be subject to conversion: All irrigated lands, as delineated by the Department of Agriculture (DA and/or the National Irrigation Authority (NIA) and approved by the President, where water is available to support rice and other crop production xxx. In ALL cases, applications for conversion involving lands protected from and non-negotiable for conversion shall not be given due course by the DAR.
4. The law also sanctions “Misrepresentation or concealment of material fact in the application for land use conversion, and other violations of the rules and regulations which are material to the grant of the conversion”. (Penalties and sanctions, Administrative Order No. 363)
Villar knowingly purchased an initial 112 hectares of prime irrigated ricelands covered by Operation Land Transfer (OLT) during the period 1994-1995 and utilized the properties for development into the Savannah subdivision. Two offenses are involved: the act of buying lands covered by agrarian reform, and the act of converting the same for non-agricultural use.
To get around the prohibition on the sale or conveyance of these lands, Villar concealed the fact about the acquisition and ordered a full stop to all agricultural activities for a period of five (5) years. The ploy was aimed at establishing the half-truth that “no food production activities are being undertaken on the lands.” After keeping the lands “barren” for five years, Villar then filed applications for conversion with the DAR, with the former owners themselves as applicants. As documented by Philippine Daily Inquirer reporter Jerry Esplanada in the July 24, 1998 edition of the paper, then DAR officials rejected the application for conversion because the lands fell under the “non-negotiable” category.
Despite this knowledge that the land conversion application was illegal, Villar went ahead to push for the DAR conversion. We can only surmise what happened next, because DAR’s position on the matter suddenly turned around, and the applications for conversion were approved on a piece-meal basis. The conversion in smaller sizes of land was apparently done to camouflage the true nature of the transactions --- the large-scale development of a subdivision in the rice granary.
What Villar has done was dismantle the framework put into place to create a critical mass of motivated farmer-land owners and lay down the foundation for agro-industrial growth. From a few dozen hectares that Villar acquired, Savannah Subdivision quickly grew to 700 hectares. And the acquisition process is far from over. Another 600 hectares have recently been bought or in the process of being bought. The lands straddle the main irrigation canal in Barangays Abilay Norte, Abilay Sur, Pulo Maestra Vita in Oton and Jibao-an, Pavia. An entire rice granary is being systematically wiped out from the face of Iloilo Province, which used to be one of the country’s most productive rice granaries.
The national government policy is to expand the coverage of irrigation services, but in the Savannah project, Villar constricted and strangulated the flow of water to force more land owners to cave in and sell to him. In the end, several secondary canals were “back-hoed” and closed down. The canals, or the footprints of what used to be canals, are now part of the beautiful landscape of Savannah Subdivision.
The unbridled pursuit of profit by Villar as manifested through the Savannah project is a major factor why the country is increasingly dependent on imported rice. Instead of helping expand our rice production areas, Villar has targeted prime agricultural lands because of their proximity to urban centers and the cheap price. Villar knew that farmer beneficiaries were vulnerable to the temptation of money. He dangled before them what appeared to be fantastic sums. Only he knew that for every peso he spent to buy the lands, the ROI would be a thousand-fold.
The farmers became “one-day millionaires”. In 1994 and 1995, Villar started buying the lands at P165,000 per hectare. His recent acquisitions have fetched as much as P2.4 million per hectare. But as the farmers found out, the money didn’t last long. They had no alternative means of llvelihood. After the lapse of a few years, they became penniless, poorer than they were when agrarian reform was carried out. This experience of Iloilo farmers contradicts Villar’s campaign promise of uplifting the poor from their present misery. He even plunged these land owners into a deep morass of poverty.
In conspiracy with government officials in DAR, NIA and other agencies, Villar circumvented the law by misrepresenting the facts to obtain the required land conversion. The documents obtained from BIR, Register of Deeds, Provincial Assessor’s Office provide incontrovertible proof that Villar willfully lied to achieve his ends. For instance, he made it appear that the applicants for land conversion were the former farmer beneficiaries. This falsity is exposed by the conflicting information found in the BIR certificate authorizing registration (CAR) and the deed of absolute sale. In one sale, the BIR document states that the transaction was consummated on May 6, 2006. And yet, in the DAR application for conversion, Villar misrepresented former owners Doroteo Figura and Resurreccion Nochete as the applicants and landowners. The application was dated June 7, 2007.
As supporting documents to the DAR land conversion application, Villar submitted certifications from the Department of Agriculture, DAR municipal agrarian reform officer and NIA to the effect that: There was no more agricultural activity in the area; the lands were not covered by CARP nor PD 27; and the area was not serviced by an existing irrigation system.
The falsity of these statements is made apparent in the video documentary which you may view through: video weblink at (http://drop.io/0guufvm/asset/24p-v2-mp4-1024-ntsc-download-mp4).
Not all the landowners in the area willingly sold their lands to Villar. But what Villar failed to achieve through the use of the carrot, he ultimately succeeded in getting with a big stick. As several ex-farmers revealed, Villar’s agents employed threats and intimidation to force them to accede. Then those land owners whose properties were located downstream of the secondary canals found the flow of irrigation water constricted. After a brief period of resistance, they had no recourse but to yield. Villar’s siege tactics triumphed.
In sum, Manny Villar committed grave and high crimes against the Filipino nation and its people. What he did in Iloilo, he has also done in other provinces and cities where he built subdivisions like Savannah. Savannah is a template for his business, and it demonstrates how the immoral and illegal use of political clout yielded him billions and billions of pesos in profits. (I have still photographs of irrigation canals in Cavite to prove that some of his subdivisions traversed by Daang Hari used to be prime irrigated ricelands, provided by residents of the area. The Villar illegal land conversions are too numerous, and juxtaposed with what happened in Savannah, constitute evidence of his real estate stock-in-trade).
Would an ordinary real estate developer, and not one who was at the same time a congressman, a Speaker of the House, a chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and a Senate President, been able to get through the laws of the land with such facility?
Ask yourself that simple question. Iba na ang malakas. Iba na ang makapangyarihan.
And this is the man who vows that “he would eradicate poverty”?
God, help this benighted land.
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for Thursday, 22 April 2010
Boy shows how Manny Villar, through his Crown Communities, Inc., violated the law, circumvented regulations, sabotaged the country’s food security program and undermined the agrarian reform program. It also shows that Villar, contrary to his claim that he will lift the poor from poverty, displaced farmer-beneficiaries of land reform from their only means of livelihood and caused them to drown in a sea of misery.
Savannah Subdivision is Villar’s Panay flagship in Pavia and Oton, towns adjacent to the spanking international airport in Sta. Barbara, on the way to Panay’s queen city of Iloilo.
It began in 1994 when Villar started scouting for an area where to put up the project. Villar saw the lands in Barangays Jibao-an in Pavia, Abilay Norte and Pulo Maestra Vita in Oton, as an ideal location. The cost of the lands was dirt-cheap compared to potential locations within the city. From a real estate developers’ point of view, it was ideal for a housing development.
There was just one catch: the lands were covered by agrarian reform, and these were classified as first-class irrigated rice lands. This fact alone would trigger alarm bells in the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), which has the mandate to regulate the conversion of agricultural lands to other purposes. As then DAR regional director Elmo Banares said, such lands are categorized as “non-negotiable”. These lands are ineligible for conversion.
Moreover, the agrarian reform statutes --- PD 27 and Republic Act No. 6657 --- prohibits the transfer of ownership over lands given to farmer beneficiaries except to “qualified” individuals or the government. By qualified individuals, the law means other landless farmers who deserve to till their own lands. The purpose is obvious: the law wants keep its productive rice lands intact, and the farm lands awarded to farmer beneficiaries form the nucleus of this rice production program.
But Villar was undaunted. Nothing could stop him from achieving his goal of reaping huge profits from his real estate business. Each peso he puts into a project comes back to him a thousand or two thousand-fold. For Villar, the law is a minor obstacle. He had the clout and influence to bend the law, and the money to make regulators bow to his will. What happened in the Savannah subdivision project shows that massive corruption paved the way for Villar to obtain favorable decisions and recommendations from various agencies. In the end, Villar got what the law forbade.
What laws and regulations did Villar break?
1. Sec. 27, RA 6657 (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law) – Transferability of Awarded Lands: Lands acquired by beneficiaries under Act may not be sold, transferred or conveyed except through hereditary succession or to the government or to the LBP or to other qualified beneficiaries for a period of ten (10) years
The same section provides that in the event the land is transferred to any other beneficiary, that new owner “shall cultivate the land himself.”
2. Presidential Decree No. 27: “Title to land acquired pursuant to this Decree or the Land Reform Program of the Government shall not be transferable except by hereditary succession or to the Government xxx.”
3. Section 1, Sub-section B (Governing Policies), Paragraph 1 of Administrative Order No. 363 issued by President Fidel V. Ramos issued on October 9, 1997:
The following areas shall not be subject to conversion: All irrigated lands, as delineated by the Department of Agriculture (DA and/or the National Irrigation Authority (NIA) and approved by the President, where water is available to support rice and other crop production xxx. In ALL cases, applications for conversion involving lands protected from and non-negotiable for conversion shall not be given due course by the DAR.
4. The law also sanctions “Misrepresentation or concealment of material fact in the application for land use conversion, and other violations of the rules and regulations which are material to the grant of the conversion”. (Penalties and sanctions, Administrative Order No. 363)
Villar knowingly purchased an initial 112 hectares of prime irrigated ricelands covered by Operation Land Transfer (OLT) during the period 1994-1995 and utilized the properties for development into the Savannah subdivision. Two offenses are involved: the act of buying lands covered by agrarian reform, and the act of converting the same for non-agricultural use.
To get around the prohibition on the sale or conveyance of these lands, Villar concealed the fact about the acquisition and ordered a full stop to all agricultural activities for a period of five (5) years. The ploy was aimed at establishing the half-truth that “no food production activities are being undertaken on the lands.” After keeping the lands “barren” for five years, Villar then filed applications for conversion with the DAR, with the former owners themselves as applicants. As documented by Philippine Daily Inquirer reporter Jerry Esplanada in the July 24, 1998 edition of the paper, then DAR officials rejected the application for conversion because the lands fell under the “non-negotiable” category.
Despite this knowledge that the land conversion application was illegal, Villar went ahead to push for the DAR conversion. We can only surmise what happened next, because DAR’s position on the matter suddenly turned around, and the applications for conversion were approved on a piece-meal basis. The conversion in smaller sizes of land was apparently done to camouflage the true nature of the transactions --- the large-scale development of a subdivision in the rice granary.
What Villar has done was dismantle the framework put into place to create a critical mass of motivated farmer-land owners and lay down the foundation for agro-industrial growth. From a few dozen hectares that Villar acquired, Savannah Subdivision quickly grew to 700 hectares. And the acquisition process is far from over. Another 600 hectares have recently been bought or in the process of being bought. The lands straddle the main irrigation canal in Barangays Abilay Norte, Abilay Sur, Pulo Maestra Vita in Oton and Jibao-an, Pavia. An entire rice granary is being systematically wiped out from the face of Iloilo Province, which used to be one of the country’s most productive rice granaries.
The national government policy is to expand the coverage of irrigation services, but in the Savannah project, Villar constricted and strangulated the flow of water to force more land owners to cave in and sell to him. In the end, several secondary canals were “back-hoed” and closed down. The canals, or the footprints of what used to be canals, are now part of the beautiful landscape of Savannah Subdivision.
The unbridled pursuit of profit by Villar as manifested through the Savannah project is a major factor why the country is increasingly dependent on imported rice. Instead of helping expand our rice production areas, Villar has targeted prime agricultural lands because of their proximity to urban centers and the cheap price. Villar knew that farmer beneficiaries were vulnerable to the temptation of money. He dangled before them what appeared to be fantastic sums. Only he knew that for every peso he spent to buy the lands, the ROI would be a thousand-fold.
The farmers became “one-day millionaires”. In 1994 and 1995, Villar started buying the lands at P165,000 per hectare. His recent acquisitions have fetched as much as P2.4 million per hectare. But as the farmers found out, the money didn’t last long. They had no alternative means of llvelihood. After the lapse of a few years, they became penniless, poorer than they were when agrarian reform was carried out. This experience of Iloilo farmers contradicts Villar’s campaign promise of uplifting the poor from their present misery. He even plunged these land owners into a deep morass of poverty.
In conspiracy with government officials in DAR, NIA and other agencies, Villar circumvented the law by misrepresenting the facts to obtain the required land conversion. The documents obtained from BIR, Register of Deeds, Provincial Assessor’s Office provide incontrovertible proof that Villar willfully lied to achieve his ends. For instance, he made it appear that the applicants for land conversion were the former farmer beneficiaries. This falsity is exposed by the conflicting information found in the BIR certificate authorizing registration (CAR) and the deed of absolute sale. In one sale, the BIR document states that the transaction was consummated on May 6, 2006. And yet, in the DAR application for conversion, Villar misrepresented former owners Doroteo Figura and Resurreccion Nochete as the applicants and landowners. The application was dated June 7, 2007.
As supporting documents to the DAR land conversion application, Villar submitted certifications from the Department of Agriculture, DAR municipal agrarian reform officer and NIA to the effect that: There was no more agricultural activity in the area; the lands were not covered by CARP nor PD 27; and the area was not serviced by an existing irrigation system.
The falsity of these statements is made apparent in the video documentary which you may view through: video weblink at (http://drop.io/0guufvm/asset/24p-v2-mp4-1024-ntsc-download-mp4).
Not all the landowners in the area willingly sold their lands to Villar. But what Villar failed to achieve through the use of the carrot, he ultimately succeeded in getting with a big stick. As several ex-farmers revealed, Villar’s agents employed threats and intimidation to force them to accede. Then those land owners whose properties were located downstream of the secondary canals found the flow of irrigation water constricted. After a brief period of resistance, they had no recourse but to yield. Villar’s siege tactics triumphed.
In sum, Manny Villar committed grave and high crimes against the Filipino nation and its people. What he did in Iloilo, he has also done in other provinces and cities where he built subdivisions like Savannah. Savannah is a template for his business, and it demonstrates how the immoral and illegal use of political clout yielded him billions and billions of pesos in profits. (I have still photographs of irrigation canals in Cavite to prove that some of his subdivisions traversed by Daang Hari used to be prime irrigated ricelands, provided by residents of the area. The Villar illegal land conversions are too numerous, and juxtaposed with what happened in Savannah, constitute evidence of his real estate stock-in-trade).
Would an ordinary real estate developer, and not one who was at the same time a congressman, a Speaker of the House, a chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and a Senate President, been able to get through the laws of the land with such facility?
Ask yourself that simple question. Iba na ang malakas. Iba na ang makapangyarihan.
And this is the man who vows that “he would eradicate poverty”?
God, help this benighted land.
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for Thursday, 22 April 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
Villar responds
Senator Manny Villar has been making the rounds of broadcast media recently, to respond to various issues hounding his campaign, and dish out remarks against his main protagonist, who has recently been featured by Time magazine on its cover.
Villar is particularly mad at the Villarroyo tag. He and his spokespersons have been denying this tag to death. He and they keep saying that it was he and his party-mates who “initiated” the investigation of all the graft scandals, from jueteng to Hello Garci, to the fertilizer scandal, and the ZTE-NBN anomalies. Vamos a ver.
He was the chair of the Senate committee that investigated the jueteng scandals involving, as per the witnesses in the hearings, Mike and Iggy, y Mikey tambien. Who exposed these? Senator Panfilo Lacson in a privilege speech. Who convinced the witnesses to come out, and gave them protection? Senator Panfilo Lacson and Archbishop Oscar Cruz, together with his assistants in the crusade against gambling. What did Villar do? He presided over the hearings in the Senate.
What did Villar not do? To this day he has not come out with a report. Now he takes pride in fighting jueteng. Ha, ha, ha.
Who brought forth the Hello Garci scandal? Why, no less than Toting Bunye, then press secretary of La Dona Gloria. Everybody and his mother remembers the tale of the two discs. “I have two hands, the left and the right”…remember? Now Bunye sits in the Monetary Board, and represents the Board in the Numismatic Committee chaired by BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Gunigundo, who is rushing the approval and award of a highly suspicious New Generation Currency, to commit billions of pesos in newly-designed banknotes in midnight fashion, and to quote the Malacanang press release after GMA brought home the “bacon” that was the ZTE-NBN contract, “like a thief in the night”. Bunye was then the press secretary, right?
When Hello Garci erupted into the national consciousness, Gilbert Remulla was chair of the public information committee in the lower House. Villar makes a big thing about then Congressman Noynoy Aquino’s vote not to hear the Garci tapes in public. Big deal.
But when the gory details of Garci’s caper sank in, the Liberal Party headed by Frank Drilon, Butch Abad, Mar Roxas, Kiko Pangilinan and Noynoy atoned for their coalition with GMA in 2004, publicly calling in a press conference at the Club Filipino for GMA to resign. Where was Villar and his Nacionalistas? Gilbert made noise. Cynthia voted with the impeachment crew, upon the prodding of Ronnie Zamora. But Manny Villar? As quiet as the Sphinx of Egypt, which he and his fellow Nacionalistas saw in 2007, as his blow-out after re-election, and where he intimated, with Sphinx and the mummies at Luxor as sacred witnesses, that he would be president in 2010.
While Drilon and Abad went to Hongkong to dog Vice-President Noli de Castro into taking over the presidency from the beleaguered Gloria, where was Villar and his Nacionalistas? Tell you what:
Upon arrival at the NAIA from Hongkong during those tense days following the “I am sorry” speech, VP Noli went straight to the Forbes Park mansion of Senador Joker Arroyo, where Manny Villar and Don Joker convinced VP Noli not to bite the Liberal offer, and stick it out with GMA. So who saved Gloria from Noli in the heyday of Hello Garci? He, he, he.
Cory Aquino and her entire family took a patriotic stand in those days. They did support GMA against Erap, but when they learned about the evil that Gloria committed, they denounced her. Sometime later, Cory publicly humbled herself when she apologized to Erap for her role in Edsa Dos. All of us commit errors of judgment. But good people retract when they see they had been had. Manny Villar, like the Sphinx, was and is --- a moral riddle. Como la Dona --- amoral?
Who is running for governor of Capiz, under a local party coalesced with the Nacionalista Party, and whose jailbird orange tarpaulins proudly proclaim Manny Villar as their “presidinti”? Why, Joc-Joc Bolante, one of the most prominent icons of corruption in this benighted land. Mismo!
And who initiated the ZTE-NBN investigation in the Senate? Not Villar. Not Alan. Not Joker, who even prevented Romy Neri from spilling his heart out in executive session. Again it was Ping Lacson. It has always been Ping Lacson who had the guts to disclose the sordid affairs of the most powerful in this land. Now Villar wants to grab the credit, and appear “opposition”. Did Alan the motor-mouth come out with a committee report? Nein. Nunca. Madi. Wala gyud!
But the interviewers in media never brought these out. They “politely” accepted Villar’s tall tales, instead of telling him to his face what a liar he is.
Villar and his Remulla taunts Noynoy for accepting Joey Salceda into the Liberal Party fold. Alright, I agree. I have always disliked turncoatism. I tried to stop Erap in May of 1998 from accepting into the LAMMP fold the 49 recruits Rep. Manny Villar presented to him, after Erap had clearly won. Weeks later, Manny Villar became Speaker of the House, over the objections of Joker Arroyo, to whom Erap had promised the speakership months before. Now Joker is Villar’s consiglieri di tutti. Ang buhay nga naman!
But what about Cagas of Davao del Sur, Aumentado of Bohol, Barbers of Surigao Norte, Plaza of Agusan (not Ompong), Uy of Compostela, Zubirri of Bukidnon, Garcia of Cebu, El Chavit de Ilocos Sur, not to forget Bolante, and now the prize catch --- the Ampatuans of Maguindanao? Of course, the Marcoses and Romualdezes as well, and even Arturo Pacificador of Antique, the man who escaped criminal prosecution under a warped justice system for the murder of Evelio Javier. Ben Abalos, that other icon of corruption along with Joc-Joc is also part of Villar’s caboodle. Joey Salceda, though Gloria’s student turned adviser, has at least dared to call her publicly “one lucky bitch”, and other misdemeanors she could not even rebuke.
Villar now declares that he would even “encourage the prosecution” of Mrs. Arroyo after June 30, because of her numerous anomalies. Ha, ha, ha! Tell that to Marine Col. Ariel Querubin, your candidate for senator. With Joc-joc and Joe, Chavit and Andal Jr. proudly wearing your jailbird orange colours, you would prosecute their Dona? Again, tell that to the Marines.
Villar protests further: “I’m not seen as a critic of anybody. That’s my style. I would rather do things than say them,” he said. Yes indeed, you just “do things”, like apportioning your pork barrel and DPWH regular budgetary appropriations to fund phase after phase of that snake-like road called Daang Hari, the better to connect one to the other of your 22 subdivisions in the area. You’ve made sure 1.97 billion pesos of the people’s money to construct Daang Hari would jack up the prices of the erstwhile irrigated farm lands you stitched together. And later, having acquired by hook or by crook more lands in Muntinglupa and San Pedro, you connected Daang Hari to a Daang Reyna. Breath-taking!
And because the Liberals were joined by Salceda of Albay, economic adviser of Dona Gloria, Villar and his Remulla now say Aquino will increase taxes, especially the VAT. And the broadcast reporter interviewing him did not even bother to ask whether or not Villar voted for E-VAT. Because as senator, Villar voted for Gloria’s consumer tax. But as congressman, Noynoy Aquino along with Chiz Escudero voted against E-VAT. Sure Ralph Recto also joined the LP, but Noynoy in a speech before the Makati Business Club categorically said that he would not impose new taxes, and when Gary Teves pined for a 15% E-VAT, Aquino immediately said “No way!”. Villar before the same Makati businessmen said, in clear terms, that he is not averse to increasing taxes. The point is, Villar lies when it is convenient for him to do so.
Just as he lied about the circumstances of his brother’s death, and conveniently denies whatever, but never explains his side on issues like Norzagaray, San Pedro, Daang Hari, Daang Reyna, Bacoor, Molino, Savannah, and of course C-5 where his peers caught him abusing power for personal aggrandizement. Whenever he is accused, he cries “black propaganda” and tells his critics off by challenging them to go to court. Just like his Dona Gloria. Parehong-pareho talaga sila.
Tell you what, Mr. Villar. Should you finally get to Malacanang, retain Gary Olivar and Charito Planas as your spokesmen. After all, Adel and Gilbert would not be ready to assume their posts till after one year, because of the constitutional ban on senatorial wannabe’s who do not make it.
* * *
In the heat of the campaign, when no one is looking because all eyes are focused on Noynoy and Villarroyo and Erap, the Numismatic Committee chair of the Bangko Sentral wants to fast-track the procurement from abroad of 702 million pieces of newly-designed banknotes. In a three-year timetable, they will demonetize present banknotes and replace the same, with imported currency printed by likely the same printer who passed off Arrovo as Arroyo in 2006. Under normal circumstances, such egregious error would have meant automatic black-listing as a supplier. But apparently, some guys in the Bank have an infinite capacity for looking the other way.
They are rushing the outsourcing of these banknotes even if the people are about to elect a new president on May 10, who under normal circumstances will be proclaimed 41 days thereafter. Will the nearest kin of the leaders featured in these New Generation Currency, namely Presidents Quezon, Osmena, Roxas, and Aquino please inquire about the circumstances of this rush, and parenthetically, look further into why the Bank keeps importing paper currency, and specifying even obsolete security patches which have already been object of counterfeiting, or adding specifications that all jack up the price because they allegedly are protected by exclusive patents?
Apart from replacing the photos of past presidents with younger-looking ones, which may raise eyebrows with historians (was this how the president looked when he was proclaimed president, or when he was a lesser mortal?), the proposed new legal tender will feature a new slogan, which reads: “Pinagpala ang Bansa na ang Diyos ay ang Panginoon”. Loosely translated, that should be: “Blessed is the Country where God is the Lord”. More aptly, it probably conveys the message that The Lord God has blessed this country. I wonder what constitutionalists will say about this slogan, considering the strict prescription about separation of Church and State.
It is after all, just 51 days before a new government takes over. And even Dona Gloria has not yet approved the new legal tender. Again, why the rush?
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for Tuesday, 20 April 2010
Villar is particularly mad at the Villarroyo tag. He and his spokespersons have been denying this tag to death. He and they keep saying that it was he and his party-mates who “initiated” the investigation of all the graft scandals, from jueteng to Hello Garci, to the fertilizer scandal, and the ZTE-NBN anomalies. Vamos a ver.
He was the chair of the Senate committee that investigated the jueteng scandals involving, as per the witnesses in the hearings, Mike and Iggy, y Mikey tambien. Who exposed these? Senator Panfilo Lacson in a privilege speech. Who convinced the witnesses to come out, and gave them protection? Senator Panfilo Lacson and Archbishop Oscar Cruz, together with his assistants in the crusade against gambling. What did Villar do? He presided over the hearings in the Senate.
What did Villar not do? To this day he has not come out with a report. Now he takes pride in fighting jueteng. Ha, ha, ha.
Who brought forth the Hello Garci scandal? Why, no less than Toting Bunye, then press secretary of La Dona Gloria. Everybody and his mother remembers the tale of the two discs. “I have two hands, the left and the right”…remember? Now Bunye sits in the Monetary Board, and represents the Board in the Numismatic Committee chaired by BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Gunigundo, who is rushing the approval and award of a highly suspicious New Generation Currency, to commit billions of pesos in newly-designed banknotes in midnight fashion, and to quote the Malacanang press release after GMA brought home the “bacon” that was the ZTE-NBN contract, “like a thief in the night”. Bunye was then the press secretary, right?
When Hello Garci erupted into the national consciousness, Gilbert Remulla was chair of the public information committee in the lower House. Villar makes a big thing about then Congressman Noynoy Aquino’s vote not to hear the Garci tapes in public. Big deal.
But when the gory details of Garci’s caper sank in, the Liberal Party headed by Frank Drilon, Butch Abad, Mar Roxas, Kiko Pangilinan and Noynoy atoned for their coalition with GMA in 2004, publicly calling in a press conference at the Club Filipino for GMA to resign. Where was Villar and his Nacionalistas? Gilbert made noise. Cynthia voted with the impeachment crew, upon the prodding of Ronnie Zamora. But Manny Villar? As quiet as the Sphinx of Egypt, which he and his fellow Nacionalistas saw in 2007, as his blow-out after re-election, and where he intimated, with Sphinx and the mummies at Luxor as sacred witnesses, that he would be president in 2010.
While Drilon and Abad went to Hongkong to dog Vice-President Noli de Castro into taking over the presidency from the beleaguered Gloria, where was Villar and his Nacionalistas? Tell you what:
Upon arrival at the NAIA from Hongkong during those tense days following the “I am sorry” speech, VP Noli went straight to the Forbes Park mansion of Senador Joker Arroyo, where Manny Villar and Don Joker convinced VP Noli not to bite the Liberal offer, and stick it out with GMA. So who saved Gloria from Noli in the heyday of Hello Garci? He, he, he.
Cory Aquino and her entire family took a patriotic stand in those days. They did support GMA against Erap, but when they learned about the evil that Gloria committed, they denounced her. Sometime later, Cory publicly humbled herself when she apologized to Erap for her role in Edsa Dos. All of us commit errors of judgment. But good people retract when they see they had been had. Manny Villar, like the Sphinx, was and is --- a moral riddle. Como la Dona --- amoral?
Who is running for governor of Capiz, under a local party coalesced with the Nacionalista Party, and whose jailbird orange tarpaulins proudly proclaim Manny Villar as their “presidinti”? Why, Joc-Joc Bolante, one of the most prominent icons of corruption in this benighted land. Mismo!
And who initiated the ZTE-NBN investigation in the Senate? Not Villar. Not Alan. Not Joker, who even prevented Romy Neri from spilling his heart out in executive session. Again it was Ping Lacson. It has always been Ping Lacson who had the guts to disclose the sordid affairs of the most powerful in this land. Now Villar wants to grab the credit, and appear “opposition”. Did Alan the motor-mouth come out with a committee report? Nein. Nunca. Madi. Wala gyud!
But the interviewers in media never brought these out. They “politely” accepted Villar’s tall tales, instead of telling him to his face what a liar he is.
Villar and his Remulla taunts Noynoy for accepting Joey Salceda into the Liberal Party fold. Alright, I agree. I have always disliked turncoatism. I tried to stop Erap in May of 1998 from accepting into the LAMMP fold the 49 recruits Rep. Manny Villar presented to him, after Erap had clearly won. Weeks later, Manny Villar became Speaker of the House, over the objections of Joker Arroyo, to whom Erap had promised the speakership months before. Now Joker is Villar’s consiglieri di tutti. Ang buhay nga naman!
But what about Cagas of Davao del Sur, Aumentado of Bohol, Barbers of Surigao Norte, Plaza of Agusan (not Ompong), Uy of Compostela, Zubirri of Bukidnon, Garcia of Cebu, El Chavit de Ilocos Sur, not to forget Bolante, and now the prize catch --- the Ampatuans of Maguindanao? Of course, the Marcoses and Romualdezes as well, and even Arturo Pacificador of Antique, the man who escaped criminal prosecution under a warped justice system for the murder of Evelio Javier. Ben Abalos, that other icon of corruption along with Joc-Joc is also part of Villar’s caboodle. Joey Salceda, though Gloria’s student turned adviser, has at least dared to call her publicly “one lucky bitch”, and other misdemeanors she could not even rebuke.
Villar now declares that he would even “encourage the prosecution” of Mrs. Arroyo after June 30, because of her numerous anomalies. Ha, ha, ha! Tell that to Marine Col. Ariel Querubin, your candidate for senator. With Joc-joc and Joe, Chavit and Andal Jr. proudly wearing your jailbird orange colours, you would prosecute their Dona? Again, tell that to the Marines.
Villar protests further: “I’m not seen as a critic of anybody. That’s my style. I would rather do things than say them,” he said. Yes indeed, you just “do things”, like apportioning your pork barrel and DPWH regular budgetary appropriations to fund phase after phase of that snake-like road called Daang Hari, the better to connect one to the other of your 22 subdivisions in the area. You’ve made sure 1.97 billion pesos of the people’s money to construct Daang Hari would jack up the prices of the erstwhile irrigated farm lands you stitched together. And later, having acquired by hook or by crook more lands in Muntinglupa and San Pedro, you connected Daang Hari to a Daang Reyna. Breath-taking!
And because the Liberals were joined by Salceda of Albay, economic adviser of Dona Gloria, Villar and his Remulla now say Aquino will increase taxes, especially the VAT. And the broadcast reporter interviewing him did not even bother to ask whether or not Villar voted for E-VAT. Because as senator, Villar voted for Gloria’s consumer tax. But as congressman, Noynoy Aquino along with Chiz Escudero voted against E-VAT. Sure Ralph Recto also joined the LP, but Noynoy in a speech before the Makati Business Club categorically said that he would not impose new taxes, and when Gary Teves pined for a 15% E-VAT, Aquino immediately said “No way!”. Villar before the same Makati businessmen said, in clear terms, that he is not averse to increasing taxes. The point is, Villar lies when it is convenient for him to do so.
Just as he lied about the circumstances of his brother’s death, and conveniently denies whatever, but never explains his side on issues like Norzagaray, San Pedro, Daang Hari, Daang Reyna, Bacoor, Molino, Savannah, and of course C-5 where his peers caught him abusing power for personal aggrandizement. Whenever he is accused, he cries “black propaganda” and tells his critics off by challenging them to go to court. Just like his Dona Gloria. Parehong-pareho talaga sila.
Tell you what, Mr. Villar. Should you finally get to Malacanang, retain Gary Olivar and Charito Planas as your spokesmen. After all, Adel and Gilbert would not be ready to assume their posts till after one year, because of the constitutional ban on senatorial wannabe’s who do not make it.
* * *
In the heat of the campaign, when no one is looking because all eyes are focused on Noynoy and Villarroyo and Erap, the Numismatic Committee chair of the Bangko Sentral wants to fast-track the procurement from abroad of 702 million pieces of newly-designed banknotes. In a three-year timetable, they will demonetize present banknotes and replace the same, with imported currency printed by likely the same printer who passed off Arrovo as Arroyo in 2006. Under normal circumstances, such egregious error would have meant automatic black-listing as a supplier. But apparently, some guys in the Bank have an infinite capacity for looking the other way.
They are rushing the outsourcing of these banknotes even if the people are about to elect a new president on May 10, who under normal circumstances will be proclaimed 41 days thereafter. Will the nearest kin of the leaders featured in these New Generation Currency, namely Presidents Quezon, Osmena, Roxas, and Aquino please inquire about the circumstances of this rush, and parenthetically, look further into why the Bank keeps importing paper currency, and specifying even obsolete security patches which have already been object of counterfeiting, or adding specifications that all jack up the price because they allegedly are protected by exclusive patents?
Apart from replacing the photos of past presidents with younger-looking ones, which may raise eyebrows with historians (was this how the president looked when he was proclaimed president, or when he was a lesser mortal?), the proposed new legal tender will feature a new slogan, which reads: “Pinagpala ang Bansa na ang Diyos ay ang Panginoon”. Loosely translated, that should be: “Blessed is the Country where God is the Lord”. More aptly, it probably conveys the message that The Lord God has blessed this country. I wonder what constitutionalists will say about this slogan, considering the strict prescription about separation of Church and State.
It is after all, just 51 days before a new government takes over. And even Dona Gloria has not yet approved the new legal tender. Again, why the rush?
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for Tuesday, 20 April 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
The big sulk
Prospero Nograles is sulking. He was president of Lakas. When it was merged with Kampi to become Pa-La-Ka, he became vice-chairman and senior adviser. Then, Gilbert Teodoro, who was named party chair as well as presidential candidate, suddenly resigned, after he was told the “final truth” about the Villarroyo alliance.
The marching orders were barked to Winston Garcia in a lunch meeting on March 22, where someone most powerful showed the latest Junie Laylo survey for Ricky Razon’s Manila Standard. At the time, the spread between Aquino and Villar had risen to 11 points, while before the Nacionalistas were preening about the “statistical tie” of a 2 point-lead. Sadly, Gibo’s numbers languished at 6 points.
“We gave him all the support”, said someone most powerful. Quoted was a whopping figure with nine zero’s, which I doubt they really gave to Gibo. Or they must have sent it through a courier, and the courier made a huge “kotong”.
But Winston said his sister Gwen was “otra cosa”, “gahi ang ulo”. The most powerful smiled wryly, “Ganun ba?”
Three days later, someone most powerful was rushed to the ultra-posh St. Luke’s Global. But the day before, Cebu City mayoralty candidate Alvin Garcia, Winston’s first cousin, began the show of allegiance to Manny Villar. And the governor of Cebu, Gwen Garcia, as predicted by her brother Winston, was “otra cosa”. Gahi gyud ang ulo.
Then that weekend, Gobernadora whispered to Gibo who was in Cebu, that someone most powerful called her up days before after Winston gave up on convincing her. To her credit, she stood her ground. Or did she really? Is this what old folks using pidgin Spanish used to describe as “jele-jele bago quiere”?
Gibo was fuming mad, and after talking to his council of advisers as Holy Week began, decided to resign as party chair. Pa-La-Ka was in mortal crisis, because shortly thereafter, young Migs Dominguez, Gibo’s hand-picked party president, also tendered his irrevocable resignation.
All of a sudden, St. Luke’s Global was not the quiet sick bay it was supposed to be, especially on Holy Week when even the country’s top specialists were either in Hongkong or parts beyond. Trapos trooped to the hospital, not necessarily to commiserate with the sick, but to hear the most powerful one decide who ought to succeed Gibo as party chair. Lo and behold, on Holy Thursday, Amelita “Girlie” Villarosa was proclaimed party chair, by diktat of the party’s most powerful, the source of manna and pork and all other “goodies”.
And so was poor Prospero of Davao City, Speaker of the House, vice-chair of Pa-La-Ka and senior adviser, bar topnotcher at that, by-passed in favour of his deputy, this woman called Girlie, from the hillbilly-hick province of Occidental Mindoro (with apologies to the natives of this beautiful province kept so dark and desperate because of a surfeit of feudal leaders), gets to be party Chair. The Speaker’s academic credentials dwarf, and his political abilities make Girlie Villarosa so picayune in contrast, but the unkindest cut of all was that he was not even consulted on the leadership change. Ano siya, tau-tauhan?, the Davao-Batangueno in him must have fumed. Meanwhile, his arch-enemy, the Davao-Cebuano Mayor Rodrigo Duterte must have been sheepishly grinning --- “Merisi sa imo” (from the Spanish “merece”; in Tagalog --- “buti nga sa ‘yo”.
Thus the big sulk. But the dam has burst, and even my friend Gilbert Teodoro’s valiant index finger used to plug the hole in the dike could not stop the onrush of defections. Prospero’s big sulk presages the big switch. The signal was clear --- Dona Gloria appointed Girlie, and that means, go Villarroyo!
* * *
A reader wrote this: “Does Manny Villar also own a stall in Recto?” You could always get a fake transcript of records, a fake diploma, whatever you need, in so many stalls that line up Recto, from the corner of Rizal Avenue to a little past Morayta.
So you need fake medical or psychological test reports? Go to Recto. And if you go way past Morayta, you reach Mendiola, and further off is Gate 7 of Malacanang. A president who faked her election, thanks to Garci, lives there too. Someone who originally came from Tondo wants to live there too. But would Filipinos go for another fake?
* * *
By Holy Wednesday, a major presidential candidate was about to call it quits. Deeply betrayed, he was advised though to hold his press conference till the Monday after Easter. The announcement was supposed to be made early in the afternoon.
The staff was ready, but they were suddenly told he would forego the earth-shaking decision. Something must have happened on Easter Sunday. Someone must have asked him to hold his horses. Which mega-billionaire could it be? Well, I will make a guess. Was he also present in the luncheon meeting where Winston was?
* * *
Meanwhile, in the district of Gibo in Tarlac, his uncle Henry is virtually unopposed. But guess who was his guest at a recent proclamation rally in Paniqui, the hometown of the Cojuangco clan?
Kris Aquino, and with her, the entire Purefoods basketball team! Tito Henry and his mayors all endorsed Noynoy, who is the son of his first cousin, the late President Cory. But Gibo’s mom, Merceditas Cojuangco-Teodoro is Henry’s older sister.
Oh well. There are Gibo’s green volunteers, led by Andrew Masigan. They have denounced the trapos who are deserting him in a press conference last Wednesday. And Malacanang quickly dispatched Deputy Spokesperson Charito Planas, wearing what else but a loose green blouse, to show that its support for the official party candidate has not waned. Consuelo de nada importa.
What a charade. Wake up Gilbert. Magluto na lang muna tayo. I heard you make a mighty good pot of caldereta.
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for Friday, 16 April 2010
The marching orders were barked to Winston Garcia in a lunch meeting on March 22, where someone most powerful showed the latest Junie Laylo survey for Ricky Razon’s Manila Standard. At the time, the spread between Aquino and Villar had risen to 11 points, while before the Nacionalistas were preening about the “statistical tie” of a 2 point-lead. Sadly, Gibo’s numbers languished at 6 points.
“We gave him all the support”, said someone most powerful. Quoted was a whopping figure with nine zero’s, which I doubt they really gave to Gibo. Or they must have sent it through a courier, and the courier made a huge “kotong”.
But Winston said his sister Gwen was “otra cosa”, “gahi ang ulo”. The most powerful smiled wryly, “Ganun ba?”
Three days later, someone most powerful was rushed to the ultra-posh St. Luke’s Global. But the day before, Cebu City mayoralty candidate Alvin Garcia, Winston’s first cousin, began the show of allegiance to Manny Villar. And the governor of Cebu, Gwen Garcia, as predicted by her brother Winston, was “otra cosa”. Gahi gyud ang ulo.
Then that weekend, Gobernadora whispered to Gibo who was in Cebu, that someone most powerful called her up days before after Winston gave up on convincing her. To her credit, she stood her ground. Or did she really? Is this what old folks using pidgin Spanish used to describe as “jele-jele bago quiere”?
Gibo was fuming mad, and after talking to his council of advisers as Holy Week began, decided to resign as party chair. Pa-La-Ka was in mortal crisis, because shortly thereafter, young Migs Dominguez, Gibo’s hand-picked party president, also tendered his irrevocable resignation.
All of a sudden, St. Luke’s Global was not the quiet sick bay it was supposed to be, especially on Holy Week when even the country’s top specialists were either in Hongkong or parts beyond. Trapos trooped to the hospital, not necessarily to commiserate with the sick, but to hear the most powerful one decide who ought to succeed Gibo as party chair. Lo and behold, on Holy Thursday, Amelita “Girlie” Villarosa was proclaimed party chair, by diktat of the party’s most powerful, the source of manna and pork and all other “goodies”.
And so was poor Prospero of Davao City, Speaker of the House, vice-chair of Pa-La-Ka and senior adviser, bar topnotcher at that, by-passed in favour of his deputy, this woman called Girlie, from the hillbilly-hick province of Occidental Mindoro (with apologies to the natives of this beautiful province kept so dark and desperate because of a surfeit of feudal leaders), gets to be party Chair. The Speaker’s academic credentials dwarf, and his political abilities make Girlie Villarosa so picayune in contrast, but the unkindest cut of all was that he was not even consulted on the leadership change. Ano siya, tau-tauhan?, the Davao-Batangueno in him must have fumed. Meanwhile, his arch-enemy, the Davao-Cebuano Mayor Rodrigo Duterte must have been sheepishly grinning --- “Merisi sa imo” (from the Spanish “merece”; in Tagalog --- “buti nga sa ‘yo”.
Thus the big sulk. But the dam has burst, and even my friend Gilbert Teodoro’s valiant index finger used to plug the hole in the dike could not stop the onrush of defections. Prospero’s big sulk presages the big switch. The signal was clear --- Dona Gloria appointed Girlie, and that means, go Villarroyo!
* * *
A reader wrote this: “Does Manny Villar also own a stall in Recto?” You could always get a fake transcript of records, a fake diploma, whatever you need, in so many stalls that line up Recto, from the corner of Rizal Avenue to a little past Morayta.
So you need fake medical or psychological test reports? Go to Recto. And if you go way past Morayta, you reach Mendiola, and further off is Gate 7 of Malacanang. A president who faked her election, thanks to Garci, lives there too. Someone who originally came from Tondo wants to live there too. But would Filipinos go for another fake?
* * *
By Holy Wednesday, a major presidential candidate was about to call it quits. Deeply betrayed, he was advised though to hold his press conference till the Monday after Easter. The announcement was supposed to be made early in the afternoon.
The staff was ready, but they were suddenly told he would forego the earth-shaking decision. Something must have happened on Easter Sunday. Someone must have asked him to hold his horses. Which mega-billionaire could it be? Well, I will make a guess. Was he also present in the luncheon meeting where Winston was?
* * *
Meanwhile, in the district of Gibo in Tarlac, his uncle Henry is virtually unopposed. But guess who was his guest at a recent proclamation rally in Paniqui, the hometown of the Cojuangco clan?
Kris Aquino, and with her, the entire Purefoods basketball team! Tito Henry and his mayors all endorsed Noynoy, who is the son of his first cousin, the late President Cory. But Gibo’s mom, Merceditas Cojuangco-Teodoro is Henry’s older sister.
Oh well. There are Gibo’s green volunteers, led by Andrew Masigan. They have denounced the trapos who are deserting him in a press conference last Wednesday. And Malacanang quickly dispatched Deputy Spokesperson Charito Planas, wearing what else but a loose green blouse, to show that its support for the official party candidate has not waned. Consuelo de nada importa.
What a charade. Wake up Gilbert. Magluto na lang muna tayo. I heard you make a mighty good pot of caldereta.
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for Friday, 16 April 2010
Thursday, April 15, 2010
A campaign built on lies
The trouble with the Villar campaign is that it has been, from Day One, built on lying. A friend who was drafted into the Villar pre-campaign by mutual friends who thought Mar Roxas could not exude the aura of a victor nor attract the big bucks required to mount a presidential campaign, tried his best. He built the message of Villar’s campaign around what he then thought were genuinely “poor” beginnings (galing sa mahirap) and tried to make it resonate further by an approach towards “tumutulong sa mahirap” through the OFW ads where Manny was shown helping some distressed Filipinos maltreated by foreign masters. Those were great beginnings for the Villar campaign.
He had a story to tell (roots of poverty), and a goal to propagate (wants to help the poor). It was a compelling anthem Mar Roxas could only lip-synch, through his “padyak” and a return to the “palengke”. Clearly, that attempt fell flat in the onslaught of Manny Villar’s “inspiring” tale.
But when Cory died and an instant euphoria pushed her son Noynoy to the fore, Manny Villar and his propagandists had to go through a cold assessment of chances. The team no longer included my friend who gave up on Villar in early 2009. If Aquino’s numbers were sustained, Villar’s chances were kaput. Fortunately for them, instant euphoria lulled the Noynoy handlers into complacency. Absolutely giddy numbers of 51%, even higher, showed a simple truth --- this was an election Noynoy could not lose, except that he had three months of a formal campaign to go, and three months of a pre-campaign to consolidate those numbers and sustain them over a six-month period, which is a long, long time in politics.
Prior to Cory, Villar’s handlers wisely assumed that: (1) Erap would likely be disqualified; (2) Chiz Escudero would be unable to raise the kind of money to put up a decent fight; (3) Mar Roxas would no longer fly; (4) Gibo would be unable to shrug off his “kiss of death”; and (5) Loren’s “bridge” was falling down.
The strategy was therefore cut and dried. Believing that billions alone make a campaign successful, he deciphered that when the money does not come, Chiz and/or Loren will be his for the taking, as running-mate that is. He wooed Chiz, but the young man wouldn’t cozy up to him after learning the truth behind the C-5 that Ping and Jamby broke. But when Chiz left his NPC, by which time Noynoy had entered the scene, Loren became easy picking.
As they had fondly wished, Noynoy was lulled into near-fatal complacency. And while the enemy was asleep, Villar’s handlers, with unlimited funds to throw in, rolled out the dice and hit pairs of sevens with their bouncing hymn to poverty, utilizing the Baseco kids. Side by side with the hymn to poverty were depictions of Villar’s amazing rags to riches story. And Noynoy’s numbers dropped, most of them parked with Villar.
Villar’s tall tales of poverty went on overload, saturating the airwaves. But meantime, layer by slow layer (slow because Villar’s gatekeepers in media killed much of the “negative” but true news about their principal), the veneer that covered the origins of Villar’s wealth broke to public attention. His numbers reached plateau. C-5 gained attention, no thanks to Jamby’s clumsy communications handling coupled with an overflow of funds to “kill” the truth , but because of Villar, mismo. He refused to face his peers, and his Senate President publicly declared him “duwag”. The masa, still half-comprehending the magnitude of Villar’s guilt, nonetheless asked themselves --- “kung walang kasalanan, bakit ayaw harapin?” And, to borrow his acolyte Alan Peter Cayetano’s description of Mike Arroyo in the heat of his ill-researched Bank Hypovereins accusation, the masa thought --- “mukhang guilty”.
Then Dumagat farmers from Norzagaray tried to bring their tale of woe to town. Their forebears tilled some 485 hectares of land (part of a total 718 has.) to which they were finally granted a free patent and original certificate of title by the Republic during the time of Macapagal I and Marcos. The politically powerful and wealthy Puyats tried to bulldoze them out of the land in martial law days. They went to its fringes, coming back when the Puyat ventures all failed, from poultry to piggery to brick-making. Karma? But later they faced a more insidious claimant, Manuel B. Villar Jr. When the 1997 Asian recession hit the Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae combined of the Philippines called Camella and Palmera, its sister company, Capitol Bank, fell under. It hocked these 485 hectares to no less than the Bangko Sentral, which parted with 1.5 billion of the people’s money to stanch the haemorrhage in the family-owned self-dealing bank. The BSP had the Villar titles transferred to it, which the Malolos Register of Deeds, along with the BSP lawyers, failed to see or deliberately missed out on the date of original transfer, which was July 25, 1944, the Japanese occupation, when transfers of property were nullified by an amendment to Commonwealth Act 141. The Dumagats have OCT’s granted by the Republic because these lands were beyond the commerce of man, and by law, only the Republic could grant these to its poor settlers. But the BSP did not run after Villar. Truth is, they were hoping Villar would buy these fake titles back from them, so they could forthwith launder their stupidity or conspiracy and clean their books of rubbish. Ironically, Villar got the Bangko Sentral to “swim in a sea of garbage”.
But media hardly noticed the poor Dumagats. Only this space and a few more bothered, shocked as we were, not only by the financial legerdemain, but more so by the utter villainy of dispossessing poor farmers. Then, up in Iloilo, Frank Drilon and Boy Mejorada discovered that prime ricelands, irrigated at much expense to the public treasury, were illegally converted into prime residential subdivisions by the same Manny Villar who came to town boasting that his forebears were Ilonggo. Villar called his Iloilo possessions Savannah, in the tradition of the antebellum South (probably having run out of Italian or French-sounding names).
And then urban poor from the barren hills of San Pedro came to town likewise, saying they were being driven out by pobre turned uber wealthy Villar, on the basis of a spurious title despite the PCGG-certified fact that the 2.8 hectare property was under lis pendens because same was sequestered from the estate of Marcos crony Maximo Argana.
Ted Failon caught Villar lying on cam when he denied that his project, the Daang Hari that connected Bacoor to Alabang, passed just a few of his properties, when in fact, some 22 subdivisions of his flagship Vista Land flanked left and right of the snaking concrete thoroughfare paid for by, once again, funds of the Philippine treasury!
As we wrote in our sister publication Abante once --- “Hindi pala maka-mahirap. Pahirap sa mahihirap.” And at the expense of taxpayer money.
More tales will surely be unravelled. Already, Lila Ramos Shahani has written on her blog an incisive analysis of Villar’s Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth, which showed not only the astronomical increase in his wealth from the time he entered politics as the congressman of Las Pinas until 2008, when he was yet President of the Senate. Most quizzical in these SALN’s was the finding that the bulk of his declared billion-peso wealth (some 700 million) was in the form of “accounts receivable” which were never liquidated, nor explained. Except as Lila, daughter of a respected former senator and niece of a former President, wondered --- was it money-laundering to predicate his oft-repeated statements that he would fund his own campaign?
But there is something else that I deliberately left out for later in this chronology of suspicious prevarications and obfuscations. Part of the Villar campaign strategy rested on: Fact One – Gilbert Teodoro’s plane would never take-off; which in turn would lead to Fact Two - Gloria and her Mike would need a new champion to ensure their political and economic longevity long after June 30, 2010, beyond the pale of simple justice. They had to have insurance from the man who would sit in the throne inside the stinking palace beside the stinking river. And thus was borne the hybrid Villar-royo.
At first even friends kept telling me I was engaging in the realm of speculation, to which I would only smile a knowing smile. For I knew that in the first week of May 2009, a day or two before Gloria Macapagal Arroyo flew to Egypt and Syria accompanied by a crony, Mr. and Mrs. Manuel Villar Jr. flew to Spain. Rendezvous somewhere astride the Mediterranean was arranged, but a tip from us to Jamby Madrigal blew the cover, and attempted tete-a-tete did not materialize en-suite. But as intent to transact was clear to me, predicate was laid for future deal.
Then the irrepressible Manny, along with his spokespersons Gilbert and Adel, couldn’t hide their excitement over future “recruits” from floundering Pa-La-Ka. In Davao last month, Villar himself used a metaphor, Davao’s green ponkam (pa-la-ka’s are green too) metastasizing (yes, that’s what it is) into jailbird orange as campaign progressed. And soon enough, the changing of the colours began. Davao del Sur’s Cagas; Aumentado and Herrera of Bohol; Pacquiao of Las Vegas; Joe Zubiri of the Higaonon highlands; Madrona of Romblon; the Villafuertes of Camarines Sur; Winston and his brood in Cebu; and then, the piece de la resistance, El Duque de Nueva Segovia, mismo, El Senor Don Luis Singson. el Chavit de Ciudad Fernandina en fondo de la Gloria! What dolt would ever believe that in the case of the last two at the very least, permission was not sought, and was not given? Why, even Gibo had to resign in disgust, although he bravely taunts the mercies of the Fates. And who did the Dona choose to replace Gibo as chair of Pa-La-Ka? Not its vice-chairman, Speaker Prospero Nograles, but her yaya who is so very close to Manny Villar as well, Girlie Villarosa of Mindoro.
Thus, Villarroyo resonated, which now Money and his chattels decry as “black propaganda”. Black is when it is false. When it is fiction transposed into seemingly credible “truth”. But when it is truth to begin with, it is as white as driven snow.
Doubtless in a state of panic depression, the Villarroyos first go into name-calling, trademark of its chief barker, Alan Peter Cayetano. His semantic masterpiece --- “topak”, whatever that meant. Si Alan, kailangan na naman siguro ang gasolina para sa Taguig. How does he call Money V --- “Tito”, the same false endearment he used for Mike Arroyo, as in “Tito…tito, kulang pa”?
But two days after, tasteless language became vulgar trick. The blackest of the black --- a “fake” medical analysis of an alleged encounter between Noynoy and unnamed because non-existent psychologists of the Ateneo University, done supposedly in 1996, two years before Noynoy embarked on a political career. It was signed by Fr. Carmelo Caluag, who forthwith denounced it as bogus. Thanks to ABS-CBN, what was peddled hours before in the internet became primetime news. And ABS declared that the fakery was supplied to them by two sources from the Nacionalista camp. Ninong Doy and Tio Pito (Laurel) must be rolling uneasy in their graves. Oh what a dastardly insult upon their grand old party Villar had wrought!
The morning after, spokesman and senatoriable Adel Tamano was denying to death on TV and radio, even foolishly insinuating that the Liberals must have shot their foot themselves to elicit sympathy. “Topak” became sly and evil plan, not just a crazed outburst from Cayetano’s motor-mouth. It was pasa-kalye to the blackest of black.
And confirmation came when Money Villarroyo, mismo, went on teleradyo, interviewed by seemingly sympathetic media persons, where he said in so many contortions, that whether or not the medical certificate (or whatever he called it) was true or fake, Noynoy should explain, because one who goes for the presidency must not hide anything from the public.
So there you are. Villarroyo himself virtually admitted that his camp peddled the lie. And he had the cheek to demand that Aquino explains his side on fiction! As fake as the titles he pawned to the Bangko Sentral. As fake as the title he used to try to drive away the urban settlers of San Pedro. As fake as the conversion of lands in Iloilo without DAR permission, illegal to begin with. As fake as the poor boy from Moriones and the poor brother who died because Manny Villar Sr. and Aling Curing “could not afford medication” for illness that was beyond medical science to cure.
The Villar campaign is built upon layers and layers of lies. Good thing these are now seeing the light. And the true character of this man who desperately needs to be President to cover his crimes, is now unmasked. Indeed, there is God.
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for Thursday, 15 April 2010
He had a story to tell (roots of poverty), and a goal to propagate (wants to help the poor). It was a compelling anthem Mar Roxas could only lip-synch, through his “padyak” and a return to the “palengke”. Clearly, that attempt fell flat in the onslaught of Manny Villar’s “inspiring” tale.
But when Cory died and an instant euphoria pushed her son Noynoy to the fore, Manny Villar and his propagandists had to go through a cold assessment of chances. The team no longer included my friend who gave up on Villar in early 2009. If Aquino’s numbers were sustained, Villar’s chances were kaput. Fortunately for them, instant euphoria lulled the Noynoy handlers into complacency. Absolutely giddy numbers of 51%, even higher, showed a simple truth --- this was an election Noynoy could not lose, except that he had three months of a formal campaign to go, and three months of a pre-campaign to consolidate those numbers and sustain them over a six-month period, which is a long, long time in politics.
Prior to Cory, Villar’s handlers wisely assumed that: (1) Erap would likely be disqualified; (2) Chiz Escudero would be unable to raise the kind of money to put up a decent fight; (3) Mar Roxas would no longer fly; (4) Gibo would be unable to shrug off his “kiss of death”; and (5) Loren’s “bridge” was falling down.
The strategy was therefore cut and dried. Believing that billions alone make a campaign successful, he deciphered that when the money does not come, Chiz and/or Loren will be his for the taking, as running-mate that is. He wooed Chiz, but the young man wouldn’t cozy up to him after learning the truth behind the C-5 that Ping and Jamby broke. But when Chiz left his NPC, by which time Noynoy had entered the scene, Loren became easy picking.
As they had fondly wished, Noynoy was lulled into near-fatal complacency. And while the enemy was asleep, Villar’s handlers, with unlimited funds to throw in, rolled out the dice and hit pairs of sevens with their bouncing hymn to poverty, utilizing the Baseco kids. Side by side with the hymn to poverty were depictions of Villar’s amazing rags to riches story. And Noynoy’s numbers dropped, most of them parked with Villar.
Villar’s tall tales of poverty went on overload, saturating the airwaves. But meantime, layer by slow layer (slow because Villar’s gatekeepers in media killed much of the “negative” but true news about their principal), the veneer that covered the origins of Villar’s wealth broke to public attention. His numbers reached plateau. C-5 gained attention, no thanks to Jamby’s clumsy communications handling coupled with an overflow of funds to “kill” the truth , but because of Villar, mismo. He refused to face his peers, and his Senate President publicly declared him “duwag”. The masa, still half-comprehending the magnitude of Villar’s guilt, nonetheless asked themselves --- “kung walang kasalanan, bakit ayaw harapin?” And, to borrow his acolyte Alan Peter Cayetano’s description of Mike Arroyo in the heat of his ill-researched Bank Hypovereins accusation, the masa thought --- “mukhang guilty”.
Then Dumagat farmers from Norzagaray tried to bring their tale of woe to town. Their forebears tilled some 485 hectares of land (part of a total 718 has.) to which they were finally granted a free patent and original certificate of title by the Republic during the time of Macapagal I and Marcos. The politically powerful and wealthy Puyats tried to bulldoze them out of the land in martial law days. They went to its fringes, coming back when the Puyat ventures all failed, from poultry to piggery to brick-making. Karma? But later they faced a more insidious claimant, Manuel B. Villar Jr. When the 1997 Asian recession hit the Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae combined of the Philippines called Camella and Palmera, its sister company, Capitol Bank, fell under. It hocked these 485 hectares to no less than the Bangko Sentral, which parted with 1.5 billion of the people’s money to stanch the haemorrhage in the family-owned self-dealing bank. The BSP had the Villar titles transferred to it, which the Malolos Register of Deeds, along with the BSP lawyers, failed to see or deliberately missed out on the date of original transfer, which was July 25, 1944, the Japanese occupation, when transfers of property were nullified by an amendment to Commonwealth Act 141. The Dumagats have OCT’s granted by the Republic because these lands were beyond the commerce of man, and by law, only the Republic could grant these to its poor settlers. But the BSP did not run after Villar. Truth is, they were hoping Villar would buy these fake titles back from them, so they could forthwith launder their stupidity or conspiracy and clean their books of rubbish. Ironically, Villar got the Bangko Sentral to “swim in a sea of garbage”.
But media hardly noticed the poor Dumagats. Only this space and a few more bothered, shocked as we were, not only by the financial legerdemain, but more so by the utter villainy of dispossessing poor farmers. Then, up in Iloilo, Frank Drilon and Boy Mejorada discovered that prime ricelands, irrigated at much expense to the public treasury, were illegally converted into prime residential subdivisions by the same Manny Villar who came to town boasting that his forebears were Ilonggo. Villar called his Iloilo possessions Savannah, in the tradition of the antebellum South (probably having run out of Italian or French-sounding names).
And then urban poor from the barren hills of San Pedro came to town likewise, saying they were being driven out by pobre turned uber wealthy Villar, on the basis of a spurious title despite the PCGG-certified fact that the 2.8 hectare property was under lis pendens because same was sequestered from the estate of Marcos crony Maximo Argana.
Ted Failon caught Villar lying on cam when he denied that his project, the Daang Hari that connected Bacoor to Alabang, passed just a few of his properties, when in fact, some 22 subdivisions of his flagship Vista Land flanked left and right of the snaking concrete thoroughfare paid for by, once again, funds of the Philippine treasury!
As we wrote in our sister publication Abante once --- “Hindi pala maka-mahirap. Pahirap sa mahihirap.” And at the expense of taxpayer money.
More tales will surely be unravelled. Already, Lila Ramos Shahani has written on her blog an incisive analysis of Villar’s Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth, which showed not only the astronomical increase in his wealth from the time he entered politics as the congressman of Las Pinas until 2008, when he was yet President of the Senate. Most quizzical in these SALN’s was the finding that the bulk of his declared billion-peso wealth (some 700 million) was in the form of “accounts receivable” which were never liquidated, nor explained. Except as Lila, daughter of a respected former senator and niece of a former President, wondered --- was it money-laundering to predicate his oft-repeated statements that he would fund his own campaign?
But there is something else that I deliberately left out for later in this chronology of suspicious prevarications and obfuscations. Part of the Villar campaign strategy rested on: Fact One – Gilbert Teodoro’s plane would never take-off; which in turn would lead to Fact Two - Gloria and her Mike would need a new champion to ensure their political and economic longevity long after June 30, 2010, beyond the pale of simple justice. They had to have insurance from the man who would sit in the throne inside the stinking palace beside the stinking river. And thus was borne the hybrid Villar-royo.
At first even friends kept telling me I was engaging in the realm of speculation, to which I would only smile a knowing smile. For I knew that in the first week of May 2009, a day or two before Gloria Macapagal Arroyo flew to Egypt and Syria accompanied by a crony, Mr. and Mrs. Manuel Villar Jr. flew to Spain. Rendezvous somewhere astride the Mediterranean was arranged, but a tip from us to Jamby Madrigal blew the cover, and attempted tete-a-tete did not materialize en-suite. But as intent to transact was clear to me, predicate was laid for future deal.
Then the irrepressible Manny, along with his spokespersons Gilbert and Adel, couldn’t hide their excitement over future “recruits” from floundering Pa-La-Ka. In Davao last month, Villar himself used a metaphor, Davao’s green ponkam (pa-la-ka’s are green too) metastasizing (yes, that’s what it is) into jailbird orange as campaign progressed. And soon enough, the changing of the colours began. Davao del Sur’s Cagas; Aumentado and Herrera of Bohol; Pacquiao of Las Vegas; Joe Zubiri of the Higaonon highlands; Madrona of Romblon; the Villafuertes of Camarines Sur; Winston and his brood in Cebu; and then, the piece de la resistance, El Duque de Nueva Segovia, mismo, El Senor Don Luis Singson. el Chavit de Ciudad Fernandina en fondo de la Gloria! What dolt would ever believe that in the case of the last two at the very least, permission was not sought, and was not given? Why, even Gibo had to resign in disgust, although he bravely taunts the mercies of the Fates. And who did the Dona choose to replace Gibo as chair of Pa-La-Ka? Not its vice-chairman, Speaker Prospero Nograles, but her yaya who is so very close to Manny Villar as well, Girlie Villarosa of Mindoro.
Thus, Villarroyo resonated, which now Money and his chattels decry as “black propaganda”. Black is when it is false. When it is fiction transposed into seemingly credible “truth”. But when it is truth to begin with, it is as white as driven snow.
Doubtless in a state of panic depression, the Villarroyos first go into name-calling, trademark of its chief barker, Alan Peter Cayetano. His semantic masterpiece --- “topak”, whatever that meant. Si Alan, kailangan na naman siguro ang gasolina para sa Taguig. How does he call Money V --- “Tito”, the same false endearment he used for Mike Arroyo, as in “Tito…tito, kulang pa”?
But two days after, tasteless language became vulgar trick. The blackest of the black --- a “fake” medical analysis of an alleged encounter between Noynoy and unnamed because non-existent psychologists of the Ateneo University, done supposedly in 1996, two years before Noynoy embarked on a political career. It was signed by Fr. Carmelo Caluag, who forthwith denounced it as bogus. Thanks to ABS-CBN, what was peddled hours before in the internet became primetime news. And ABS declared that the fakery was supplied to them by two sources from the Nacionalista camp. Ninong Doy and Tio Pito (Laurel) must be rolling uneasy in their graves. Oh what a dastardly insult upon their grand old party Villar had wrought!
The morning after, spokesman and senatoriable Adel Tamano was denying to death on TV and radio, even foolishly insinuating that the Liberals must have shot their foot themselves to elicit sympathy. “Topak” became sly and evil plan, not just a crazed outburst from Cayetano’s motor-mouth. It was pasa-kalye to the blackest of black.
And confirmation came when Money Villarroyo, mismo, went on teleradyo, interviewed by seemingly sympathetic media persons, where he said in so many contortions, that whether or not the medical certificate (or whatever he called it) was true or fake, Noynoy should explain, because one who goes for the presidency must not hide anything from the public.
So there you are. Villarroyo himself virtually admitted that his camp peddled the lie. And he had the cheek to demand that Aquino explains his side on fiction! As fake as the titles he pawned to the Bangko Sentral. As fake as the title he used to try to drive away the urban settlers of San Pedro. As fake as the conversion of lands in Iloilo without DAR permission, illegal to begin with. As fake as the poor boy from Moriones and the poor brother who died because Manny Villar Sr. and Aling Curing “could not afford medication” for illness that was beyond medical science to cure.
The Villar campaign is built upon layers and layers of lies. Good thing these are now seeing the light. And the true character of this man who desperately needs to be President to cover his crimes, is now unmasked. Indeed, there is God.
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for Thursday, 15 April 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
An anatomy of black and white
As candidates and their supporters in this campaign claim that the other side is mounting “black” propaganda against the other, and many in media echo the charges willy-nilly, it is perhaps time for a definition of terms.
What exactly is “black” propaganda? When is propaganda, or the use of communication tools to advance causes or personalities, or conversely, against programs or personalities “black”, and when is it “white”? When is it acceptable, and when is it unacceptable?
The distinction is very simple. It is “black” when it is false. It is “white” when it is true.
Now, all campaign issues can either be positive or negative. And the main criteria for making informed choices boil down at the very essence, to only two: character and competence. When one highlights the educational background of a candidate, as for instance when one touts that Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is a holder of several degrees in economics, local as well as foreign, on the caveat that what it claims are certifiably true, then one communicates a “positive” competence issue. Similarly, when one says that Joseph Ejercito Estrada is a college drop-out, one describes a “negative” competence issue. How a candidate and his supporters use what on its face is a “negative” campaign issue to his benefit, either by highlighting it (if it relates to his opponent), or contrarily, by neutralizing its damaging effects if it relates to him, defines the effectiveness of his campaign.
This is the same when the issue falls within the criterion of character. Many, this writer included, believe that the question of a candidate’s character, or lack of it, is infinitely more important a consideration in the choice of leadership than the question of a candidate’s perceived competence. For in the end, a president with the proper sense of what is right and wrong, one who posseses the requisite moral character, will always attract the best and the brightest to run government with and for him. A person of base character will attract only the same, men and women who possess competence, but are ready, willing and able, to compromise the public interest for self-aggrandizement or personal glory.
Let me give some contemporary examples. Marcos scored much, much higher than Cory in the competence department. But he scored much, much lower in the character criterion. When he and his propagandists twitted Cory for her lack of competence during the snap election campaign via the well-remembered negative propaganda line, “walang alam” and its companion “housewife lang iyan” charge, the housewife turned what was negative on its face into a positive issue. She admitted “talagang wala akong alam”, and then qualified --- “sa pagnanakaw”, “sa pagpatay”. What was a negative competence issue against Cory became a brilliant character issue for her.
No one has bothered to question the academic qualifications of Gloria. On its face, she is a doctor of economics, and while some whispers said that she did something sly in her past to obtain her doctorate, these never gained traction. Like most Filipinos, a diploma is a diploma, period. Never mind if one cheated to get that diploma. As far as competence is concerned, Gloria passed the grade, with flying colours even, when she campaigned for the presidency in 2004, previous disavowal notwithstanding. Everybody questioned the late FPJ’s competence, and he made no pretenses about his lack of academic pedigree, but he and his propagandists highlighted the purity of his heart, the sincerity of his intentions, as contra-distinguished from Gloria’s well-publicized “character” issues. Most voters chose character versus competence in 2004, but then again, they did not reckon with Hello Garci, and how the baseness of Gloria’s character could easily countenance cheating her opponent. Whether or not the amount of cheating changed the outcome of elections, or whether she, her Garci and her generals with the knowing conspiracy of her Comelec then headed by her Abalos, just padded slim margin to become bigger, or whether her more than a million margin was all manufactured, we perhaps will never know. Certainly, the poor FPJ never got around to prove his victory, as death overcame him so easily where it has not the husband and operator of his nemesis. But FPJ is remembered with reverence; Gloria and her ilk are as hated as hated could ever be, and legions of propagandists and tons of propaganda spin will never change that, not in her lifetime, not even in her Mikey’s.
Fast forward to today, as the nation is convulsed yet once again with political fever, and foremost in everybody’s mind is the question of who ought to lead in times so dire and so critical. Must competence triumph over character? What is the truth about the candidates’ competence or lack of the same? What is the truth about the candidates’ character, or lack of it?
Gilbert Teodoro has high academic credentials, has had legislative and executive experience, and because he was a latecomer in a game where some other candidates have laid first claim on choice propaganda taglines, it is understandable that he chose “Galing at Talino”, not necessarily resonant in voter’s hearts although important to some in the ABC income levels. That competence, his advertising claimed, distinguished him from others in the field. That he languishes in the 6 to 7% territory a month before Election Day simply shows that “galing at talino” matter little to voters whose lives have become more desperate under the leadership of a doctorate degree-holder, and in economics at that, whom Gibo owes fealty to.
“Galing at Talino also sounds rather boastful, and as a political intro, I would rather have used terms like “may kakayahan”, “may integridad” and “may puso”. Competence. Integrity. Compassion. But it is a tad too late for that. Too bad.
For a long time, Manny Villar’s ascent in the ratings game was the function of his highlighting a character issue. Nobody can after all question the qualifications, not necessarily competence, of a UP business administration graduate who became a successful business tycoon, a Speaker and a Senate President at that.
But by identifying with the poor in his propaganda strategy, Villar projected well. “Galing sa mahirap” always evokes sympathy from the masa. Ed Lansdale, the CIA agent who masterminded Magsaysay’s campaign pictured The Guy as a “poor mechanic”, hiding the reality that the Magsaysays were landed gentry, and because he finished mechanical engineering, he was the COO of his wife’s bus company. A thread of truth was magnified into a “magnificent” tale. Placed side by side with the patrician gentleman of the old school, Elpidio Quirino, who was born truly poor, the son in fact of a jail warden in Vigan, Lansdale’s fable about Magsaysay resonated.
Diosdado P. Macapagal was the son of Lubao peasants, who had to act in zarzuelas in Pampanga to augment the family income, and went through school as the scholar of a wealthy philanthropist from Bacolor, Don Honorio Ventura, or so the “Poor Boy from Lubao” related his tale.
Manny Villar has spun the story of having sprung from the ranks of the lumpen, so that homespun logic would conclude that he also knows how to help them escape the desperation of poverty. “Tatapusin ang kahirapan ng galing sa mahirap” could succeed indeed. His would-have-been opponent, Mar Roxas, could not transcend perceptions about his being an “aristocrat” with political pedigree, and no matter how long he tried to show empathy through “padyak” and “palengke”, Villar beat him at the game of capturing voters’ hearts and minds, thanks in no small part to a bottomless war chest which he dispensed with no second thoughts.
But Fate played a cruel game on front-runner Villar. The nation’s icon of democracy, Corazon Aquino, who though to the manor born was the epitome of simplicity and good character in her time, died after a lingering illness that held the nation in the suspenseful grip of sympathy.
Mar, who held his party’s nomination as done deal, saw the futility of waging political war on the terms already defined by brand leader Villar. He gave way to the son of democracy’s icon, the son as well of freedom’s contemporary martyr. Thus was Noynoy pushed into the presidential arena. Only he and his mantle of legacy could match by moral crusade the indecent billions of Villar. And the instant surveys proved that point.
But as most emotions go, they can be fleeting when overwhelmed by the siren song of promises coming from one with the resources to propagate a well-crafted message and when the opponent’s supporters are, as they had been, lulled into dangerous complacency. Noynoy’s numbers slipped and Villar caught up, courtesy of what seemed at the beginning to be “truth well told”, and well-disseminated because of an abundance of TV time and grease.
But instant commercial success has its pitfalls too. An inherently bad product cannot last in the competition no matter how great the advertising line and the promotional campaign is. And this is the tragedy of Manny Villar’s fantastic tale. It was a bubble.
He had done well with his tale of poverty, until he recounted in a TVC how his younger brother died “dahil walang perang pampagamot”. At the time of the airing, his anthem to poverty using poor kids from Baseco or Isla Puting Bato was so catchy that even my grandson and my driver’s kids had memorized the song. Embellishing an already accepted tale with falsehood did him in. Because when enterprising journalists dug up the records of his “poverty” and his brother’s cause of death and the circumstances surrounding it, the myth of extreme poverty was unmasked as nothing else but an exaggerated tale.
The sad undercurrent of Villar’s false propaganda, apart from the fact that it betrays a morally reprehensible character no different from the hated Gloria’s habitual lying, is the utilitarian gall of using the unfortunate truth about a dead sibling to project false poverty that insults the memory of a dead father and an 84-year old mother who heroically raised nine children by sheer “sipag at tiyaga”.
No creative advertising man invented this untruth about Danny Villar. No one else but Manny Villar must have supplied the propagandists the line about “walang perang pampagamot” for an illness that then and now, defies the cure of medical science.
Now, was exposing the truth about the circumstances of Danny Villar’s death an act of “black” propaganda? Certainly not by any sane man’s definition.
Which is why I could not understand (except if I entertain thoughts about a lack of intelligence induced by fat envelopes), how some sectors in media could parrot the Nacionalista line about “black propaganda” against Manuel Villar.
Exposing the truth about what Winnie Monsod labelled “awesome claims” is the duty of any responsible journalist. To hide the truth about someone running for the highest office in the land so benighted by lying and cheating and stealing is an abomination.
Because truth is white, and only falsehood can be black.
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for Tuesday, 13 April 2010
What exactly is “black” propaganda? When is propaganda, or the use of communication tools to advance causes or personalities, or conversely, against programs or personalities “black”, and when is it “white”? When is it acceptable, and when is it unacceptable?
The distinction is very simple. It is “black” when it is false. It is “white” when it is true.
Now, all campaign issues can either be positive or negative. And the main criteria for making informed choices boil down at the very essence, to only two: character and competence. When one highlights the educational background of a candidate, as for instance when one touts that Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is a holder of several degrees in economics, local as well as foreign, on the caveat that what it claims are certifiably true, then one communicates a “positive” competence issue. Similarly, when one says that Joseph Ejercito Estrada is a college drop-out, one describes a “negative” competence issue. How a candidate and his supporters use what on its face is a “negative” campaign issue to his benefit, either by highlighting it (if it relates to his opponent), or contrarily, by neutralizing its damaging effects if it relates to him, defines the effectiveness of his campaign.
This is the same when the issue falls within the criterion of character. Many, this writer included, believe that the question of a candidate’s character, or lack of it, is infinitely more important a consideration in the choice of leadership than the question of a candidate’s perceived competence. For in the end, a president with the proper sense of what is right and wrong, one who posseses the requisite moral character, will always attract the best and the brightest to run government with and for him. A person of base character will attract only the same, men and women who possess competence, but are ready, willing and able, to compromise the public interest for self-aggrandizement or personal glory.
Let me give some contemporary examples. Marcos scored much, much higher than Cory in the competence department. But he scored much, much lower in the character criterion. When he and his propagandists twitted Cory for her lack of competence during the snap election campaign via the well-remembered negative propaganda line, “walang alam” and its companion “housewife lang iyan” charge, the housewife turned what was negative on its face into a positive issue. She admitted “talagang wala akong alam”, and then qualified --- “sa pagnanakaw”, “sa pagpatay”. What was a negative competence issue against Cory became a brilliant character issue for her.
No one has bothered to question the academic qualifications of Gloria. On its face, she is a doctor of economics, and while some whispers said that she did something sly in her past to obtain her doctorate, these never gained traction. Like most Filipinos, a diploma is a diploma, period. Never mind if one cheated to get that diploma. As far as competence is concerned, Gloria passed the grade, with flying colours even, when she campaigned for the presidency in 2004, previous disavowal notwithstanding. Everybody questioned the late FPJ’s competence, and he made no pretenses about his lack of academic pedigree, but he and his propagandists highlighted the purity of his heart, the sincerity of his intentions, as contra-distinguished from Gloria’s well-publicized “character” issues. Most voters chose character versus competence in 2004, but then again, they did not reckon with Hello Garci, and how the baseness of Gloria’s character could easily countenance cheating her opponent. Whether or not the amount of cheating changed the outcome of elections, or whether she, her Garci and her generals with the knowing conspiracy of her Comelec then headed by her Abalos, just padded slim margin to become bigger, or whether her more than a million margin was all manufactured, we perhaps will never know. Certainly, the poor FPJ never got around to prove his victory, as death overcame him so easily where it has not the husband and operator of his nemesis. But FPJ is remembered with reverence; Gloria and her ilk are as hated as hated could ever be, and legions of propagandists and tons of propaganda spin will never change that, not in her lifetime, not even in her Mikey’s.
Fast forward to today, as the nation is convulsed yet once again with political fever, and foremost in everybody’s mind is the question of who ought to lead in times so dire and so critical. Must competence triumph over character? What is the truth about the candidates’ competence or lack of the same? What is the truth about the candidates’ character, or lack of it?
Gilbert Teodoro has high academic credentials, has had legislative and executive experience, and because he was a latecomer in a game where some other candidates have laid first claim on choice propaganda taglines, it is understandable that he chose “Galing at Talino”, not necessarily resonant in voter’s hearts although important to some in the ABC income levels. That competence, his advertising claimed, distinguished him from others in the field. That he languishes in the 6 to 7% territory a month before Election Day simply shows that “galing at talino” matter little to voters whose lives have become more desperate under the leadership of a doctorate degree-holder, and in economics at that, whom Gibo owes fealty to.
“Galing at Talino also sounds rather boastful, and as a political intro, I would rather have used terms like “may kakayahan”, “may integridad” and “may puso”. Competence. Integrity. Compassion. But it is a tad too late for that. Too bad.
For a long time, Manny Villar’s ascent in the ratings game was the function of his highlighting a character issue. Nobody can after all question the qualifications, not necessarily competence, of a UP business administration graduate who became a successful business tycoon, a Speaker and a Senate President at that.
But by identifying with the poor in his propaganda strategy, Villar projected well. “Galing sa mahirap” always evokes sympathy from the masa. Ed Lansdale, the CIA agent who masterminded Magsaysay’s campaign pictured The Guy as a “poor mechanic”, hiding the reality that the Magsaysays were landed gentry, and because he finished mechanical engineering, he was the COO of his wife’s bus company. A thread of truth was magnified into a “magnificent” tale. Placed side by side with the patrician gentleman of the old school, Elpidio Quirino, who was born truly poor, the son in fact of a jail warden in Vigan, Lansdale’s fable about Magsaysay resonated.
Diosdado P. Macapagal was the son of Lubao peasants, who had to act in zarzuelas in Pampanga to augment the family income, and went through school as the scholar of a wealthy philanthropist from Bacolor, Don Honorio Ventura, or so the “Poor Boy from Lubao” related his tale.
Manny Villar has spun the story of having sprung from the ranks of the lumpen, so that homespun logic would conclude that he also knows how to help them escape the desperation of poverty. “Tatapusin ang kahirapan ng galing sa mahirap” could succeed indeed. His would-have-been opponent, Mar Roxas, could not transcend perceptions about his being an “aristocrat” with political pedigree, and no matter how long he tried to show empathy through “padyak” and “palengke”, Villar beat him at the game of capturing voters’ hearts and minds, thanks in no small part to a bottomless war chest which he dispensed with no second thoughts.
But Fate played a cruel game on front-runner Villar. The nation’s icon of democracy, Corazon Aquino, who though to the manor born was the epitome of simplicity and good character in her time, died after a lingering illness that held the nation in the suspenseful grip of sympathy.
Mar, who held his party’s nomination as done deal, saw the futility of waging political war on the terms already defined by brand leader Villar. He gave way to the son of democracy’s icon, the son as well of freedom’s contemporary martyr. Thus was Noynoy pushed into the presidential arena. Only he and his mantle of legacy could match by moral crusade the indecent billions of Villar. And the instant surveys proved that point.
But as most emotions go, they can be fleeting when overwhelmed by the siren song of promises coming from one with the resources to propagate a well-crafted message and when the opponent’s supporters are, as they had been, lulled into dangerous complacency. Noynoy’s numbers slipped and Villar caught up, courtesy of what seemed at the beginning to be “truth well told”, and well-disseminated because of an abundance of TV time and grease.
But instant commercial success has its pitfalls too. An inherently bad product cannot last in the competition no matter how great the advertising line and the promotional campaign is. And this is the tragedy of Manny Villar’s fantastic tale. It was a bubble.
He had done well with his tale of poverty, until he recounted in a TVC how his younger brother died “dahil walang perang pampagamot”. At the time of the airing, his anthem to poverty using poor kids from Baseco or Isla Puting Bato was so catchy that even my grandson and my driver’s kids had memorized the song. Embellishing an already accepted tale with falsehood did him in. Because when enterprising journalists dug up the records of his “poverty” and his brother’s cause of death and the circumstances surrounding it, the myth of extreme poverty was unmasked as nothing else but an exaggerated tale.
The sad undercurrent of Villar’s false propaganda, apart from the fact that it betrays a morally reprehensible character no different from the hated Gloria’s habitual lying, is the utilitarian gall of using the unfortunate truth about a dead sibling to project false poverty that insults the memory of a dead father and an 84-year old mother who heroically raised nine children by sheer “sipag at tiyaga”.
No creative advertising man invented this untruth about Danny Villar. No one else but Manny Villar must have supplied the propagandists the line about “walang perang pampagamot” for an illness that then and now, defies the cure of medical science.
Now, was exposing the truth about the circumstances of Danny Villar’s death an act of “black” propaganda? Certainly not by any sane man’s definition.
Which is why I could not understand (except if I entertain thoughts about a lack of intelligence induced by fat envelopes), how some sectors in media could parrot the Nacionalista line about “black propaganda” against Manuel Villar.
Exposing the truth about what Winnie Monsod labelled “awesome claims” is the duty of any responsible journalist. To hide the truth about someone running for the highest office in the land so benighted by lying and cheating and stealing is an abomination.
Because truth is white, and only falsehood can be black.
(banayo_at@yahoo.com)
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for Tuesday, 13 April 2010
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Direct Talk from Manny Villar:
Hindi daw siya magnanakaw. Pero bakit siya nagsisinungaling? Hindi ba’t kapatid ng magnanakaw ang sinungaling.
Sa napakatagal na panahon ay nanahimik ako. Naniwala at patuloy akong naniniwalang may mas mahahalaga pang isyung dapat harapin sa halalang ito kaysa sa magbatuhan ng putik, lalo na kung ito’y pawang kasinungalingan lamang.
He claims he is the son of heroes. Heir to the legacy of his parents, their courage, and integrity. Ngunit bakit siya nagtatago sa likod ng black propaganda? Hindi ba’t utang din niya sa sambayanan ang ipaalam sa mamamayan ang kanyang plataporma, kakayahan, at kapasidad na mamuno? (Ano ang black propaganda? Kapag hindi totoo ang sinabi o isiniwalat, iyan ang black propaganda. Hindi si Noynoy ang naka-diskubre na nagsinunagling si Villar ukol sa pagkamatay ng kapatid niya na siya mismo ang naglabas sa TV afvertisement. Ito’y trabaho ni Billy Esposo ng Philippine Star at ako na nagsusulat sa Malaya. Ibinahagi naming an gaming impormasyon kina Winnie Monsod, Sonny Coloma, Conrad de Quiroz at Manolo Quezon na aming kaibigan). Dokumentado ang aming inilathala, at maging ang GMA 7 at ABS-CBN ay pinatunayang sila ay nagtungo sa kaukulang mga ahensya ng pamahalaan upang i-verify kung totoo ang mga dokumento namin.
The issue in this election or any election is competence and track record. Why does he keep quiet on these issues?
Inapi raw sila. Ano naman ang natutunan niya sa karanasang ito?
Noong sinabi kong ako’y ipinanganak na mahirap, kaakibat nito ang leksiyong patuloy na mangarap sa kabila ng kahirapan. Nagsipag ako, nagtiyaga. Natuto akong makipagkapwa-tao sa mga tulad kong isinilang na salat sa oportunidad.
Bakit siya naman ngayon ang nang-aapi? (Paano naman aapihin ang bilyonaryo na napakyaw na ang halos lahat ng airtime sa TV at radio, at marami nang nabiling mga media?)
The issues he and his thousand advisers have hurled against me, have hurt not only me but my family and friends. Nasaktan na po ang aking pamilya, maybahay, mga anak, mga kapatid, at ang aking ina.
Paano mo sasabihin sa isang tindera ng hipon at isda na hindi talaga siya mahirap? Paano mo sasabihin sa aking mga kapatid na karangyaan pala ang magsiksikan sa isang banig at isang kulambo, gayung mas malaki pa ang kulungan ng aso ng isang haciendero sa aming tahanan?
Panahon nang basagin ko ang kanilang mga kasinungalingan. Utang nating lahat na mga kumakandidato, Nacionalista man o Liberal, na ipaalam sa taumbayan ang katotohanan. (Siya lang ang nagsasabi ng mga ito. Walang nagsasabing kailanman ay hindi sila naging mahirap. Kung sakaling nag-umpisa man silang mahirap, umasenso sila, sa sipag at tiyaga ng ama’t ina niya, at hindi dahil kay Manny Villar Jr.)
Anak ng Tondo
Kasinungalingan ang kanilang paratang na hindi ako kailanman ipinanganak na mahirap.
Katotohan. Ako si Manuel Bamba Villar, Jr., isinilang sa 500 Moriones St., Sta. Maria, Tondo Manila. Ang aking ama ay isang kawani ng pamahalaan, ang aking ina ay naglalako ng isda at hipon sa palengke. Siyam kaming magkakapatid. Nanirahan kami bilang mga squatters. Natutulog kaming siyam na magkakapatid sa isang makitid na banig sa isang maliit na kulambo.
Kapag umuulan tumutulo ang tubig-ulan mula sa butas-butas na bubong ng aming bahay. Kapag malakas ang ulan at bumabaha sa paligid ng aming tinitirhan, naglulutangan ang mga basura sa paligid. Wala kaming pakialam na naliligo sa ulan, lumalangoy sa baha.
Ganyan ang maging mahirap. Bata kami, walang mga ilog at beach sa kamaynilaan. Lalo namang walang swimming pool, jacuzzi, o bath tub sa aming lugar. Sabik kaming lumangoy kahit na sa dagat ng basura.
Hindi nila ito kainlanman mauunawaan.
Tindero sa Divisoria
Kasinungalingang mayaman daw kami kaya sa pribadong Catholic school ako nag-aral.
Katotohanan. Nag-grade 1 ako sa Isabelo de los Reyes elementary school. Kung mayaman kami, sana nag-nursery, kinder, at prep pa ako, pero hindi. Nag-drop out ako sa Isabelo de los Reyes, inaamin ko. Mas ginusto ko pang maglakwatsa at tumulong sa nanay kong magtinda sa Divisoria. (Magkasing-edad kami ni Villar. E talaga namang wala pang mga nursery noon. Isang taong kinder tapos Grade One na agad, sa private school. Sa public, deretso na sa Grade One.)
Ang sinasabi nilang Holy Child Catholic School ay dating maliit na paaralang itinayo ng mga pari para sa mga mahihirap. Malapit sa aming bahay, at walking distance lamang. Dun ako nag-aral. “Pribado” dahil hindi pinapatakbo ng pamahalaan pero hindi pribadong kagaya ng La Salle o Ateneo na alam natin ngayon.
Pag gabi, naglalakad kami ng nanay ko papuntang Divisoria. Bumibili kami ng ilang banyerang hipon para itinda sa palengke. Sa likod ng puwesto, sa isang makitid na bangko ako natutulog. Pag dating ng umaga, nagtitinda kami.
Buong buhay ng ina ko, nagtinda siya ng hipon. Bulag na siya ngayon, ngunit patuloy na naluluha sa tuwing maririnig niya ang mga kasinungalingang ipinapakalat ng mga taong kainlanman ay hindi mauunawaan kung paano maging mahirap. (Sadyang kaawa-awa si Aling Curing. Kasi minamaliit ni Manny Villar ang dinanas niyang hirap, mai-angat lang ang buhay ng mga anak. Pinalalabas ni Villar sa kanyang mga advertisement na tila inutil ang ama’t ina na sila ay bigyan ng mas mabuting kabuhayan. Dapat siya ang mahiya sa ina niyang nagpakahirap para itaguyod sila.)
Napakarami nilang nahagilap na dokumento, bakit hindi sila pumunta sa Divisoria at ipagtanong sa mga matatanda doon si Coring na tindera ng hipon, si Nanay Coring na ina ko? Bakit hindi nila puntahan ang mga batang kasama kong nag-swimming sa dagat ng basura o ang mga nakakita sa aking matulog sa gitna ng lansangan?
Katotohan ba talaga o paninirang puri ang motibasyon sa likod ng kanilang pag-iimbestiga?
Ang aking kapatid
Kasinungalingan at kalapastanganang kwestiyunin nila na kahirapan nga ang dahilan ng pagkamatay ng aking kapatid. (Siya ang naglabas noon sa TV, hindi kami)
Katotohanan. Oo, naospital siya sa FEU. Oo, Funeraria Paz ang nag-asikaso sa pag-eembalsamo sa kanya. Alin diyan ang patunay na kailanman ay hindi kami naging mahirap? (Wala namang nagsasabi na kailanman ay hindi sila naging mahirap.)
Idinala siya sa FEU dahil may kamag-anak kami roon na maaaring tumulong upang mapadali ang pag-admit sa kanya. Dahil ba sa mahirap kami ay hindi na namin nanaising makatanggap ng magandang serbisyo ang miyembro ng pamilyang may sakit? Bakit hindi nila sinabing sa charity ward siya tinanggap? (Wala nang record ukol dito. Sinabi niya sa charity ward. Fine. Sa dami nang nagpupunta sa charity ward, hindi kaya sila sinabihan ng duktor na i-uwi na lang ang kaawa-awang bata, dahil wala namang gamot sa leukemia, at nang hindi na sila gumasta pa ng walang kahihinatnan?)
Namatay siya sa Leukemia, sakit ng lahi namin. Nang mga panahong iyon, hindi namin lubusang nauunawaan ang ibig sabihin ng Leukemia. Lumalaki ang tiyan niya, at wala kaming sapat na perang pambili ng gamot. Ganunpaman, sa panahong kailangan na siyang itakbo sa ospital, iisipin pa ba naman namin na wala kaming pambayad? Iisipin pa ba naman namin na wala pang teknolohiya para sa bone marrow transplant gaya ng sabi ni Esposo?
Sa mahirap, ang cancer ay cancer. Sa mahirap, ang pamilya ay pamilya. Anuman ang sabihin nila, igagapang, ipagpapalimos, ipagmamakaawa ang isang kamag-anak na may sakit.
Nang mamatay siya, at nag-iiyakan kami, iisipin pa ba naman namin kung pang-mayaman o pang-mahirap ang funeraria na mag-eembalsamo sa namatay? Tatanguan nalang namin ang unang ahenteng lalapit, pipirmahan nalang ang unang dokumentong iaabot para lang maisaayos ang bangkay.
Sa bahay siya ibinurol, kasama ng kanyang mga pangarap dahil maaga siyang binawian ng buhay.
Kami na lamang ang nangarap para sa kanya. Ipinagpapatuloy naming ang pangarap na ito hanggang sa ngayon.
Binanggit ko ang kanyang kuwento sa aking commercial upang magbigay-inspirasyon sa kapwa naming mahihirap.
They violated the memory of my brother by putting spins on our life and his death. This is what Noynoy Aquino and the Liberal Party call principled campaign. Cheap politics. Cheap politicians!
Hindi sila mga Diyos para magsabing bawal mangarap ang mahihirap! (Walang nagsasabing bawal mangarap ang mahirap. Ang aming tanong ay simple --- bakit kailangan mong magsinungaling? Bakit kailangan mong gamitin ang kaawa-awa mong kapatid sa iyong pagsisinungaling?)
Lupa sa Navotas
Natatakot kayong maniwala ang mga mamamayan sa aking kuwento dahil natatakot kayong maglakas-loob ang mga magsasaka’t mga kasama na pangaraping balang araw ay ariin ang inyong mga hacienda, ang lupang kanilangang binubungukal at pinagyayaman.
Minamana ninyo ang inyong mga lupain at ari-arian. Dangal lamang ang maipapamana ng mahihirap sa kanilang mga anak.
Nangarap ang aking pamilya, nagsipag at nagtiyaga. Ipinangutang sa gobyerno ang lupa at tahanang nilipatan.
Hindi ito kagaya ng San Raphael Village na binabanggit ni Winnie Monsod. Hindi ito exclusive subdivision noon, walang gate, walang guwardiya. Hindi sementado, hindi aspaltado. Isang kapirasong lupa sa Navotas, malapit sa Smokey Mountain, lubog sa baha tuwing umuulan.
Kasinungalingang sabihing patunay ito na hindi kami naghirap.
Ang katotohanan ay patunay itong unti-unti man ay nakaangat din kami at maaaring makaahon ang sinumang matapang na haharapin ang mga hamon ng buhay. (Tama ka diyan. Uma-angat na kayo noon. Kaya hindi nga totoong namatay si Danny “dahil wala kayong perang pampagamot”. Sa katunayan, ang mga nagsipagbilihan doon at nanirahan sa San Rafael Subdivison ay tulad nina Wilson Tieng ng Solar Films, na anak ng may pinakamalaking tindahan ng pinggan at gamit pang-kusina noon pa man, sa Echague. Maging si Robin Sy, naging pangulo ng Federation of Chinese Chambers of Commerce, at sina Yao Eng Hue, na isa sa pinakamalaking pabrika ng gomang chinelas ang pag-aari). Ang ama ni Villar ay hindi ordinaryong kawani ng pamahalaan, kundi budget officer ng Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Sino ang tuta ni Arroyo?
Ang katotohana’y naninira sila upang pagtakpan ang kahinaan ng kanilang kandidato. Ang katotohanang sa loob ng tatlong termino sa mababang kapulungan at kalahating termino sa senado ay walang naipasa ni isang batas si Noynoy Aquino.
‘Yan naman ang kanilang sagutin. Hindi ba’t trabaho ng isang mambabatas ang magpasa ng batas? Hindi ba’t nangako at nanumpa siyang gagampanan ang responsibilidad na ito, sa mamamayan, sa Diyos, at sa Konstitusyon ng Pilipinas?
Walang-bahala, iresponsable, at tamad, ipagkakatiwala ba natin sa kanya ang kinabukasan ng ating bayan?
Nasaan si Aquino nang iniimbestigahan ang Hello Garci? Hindi ba’t hinarangan niya ang pagpapatugtog ng Hello Garci tapes upang protektahan ang kanyang kaalyadong si Gloria Arroyo? (Ikaw nga diyan ang nanahimik. Buti pa nga ang mga Liberal, hiniling ang resignation ni GMA, at kumalas sa koalisyon. Kanya nga nahati sila sa tinaguriang Drilon wing na oposisyon, at Atienza wing na maka-Gloria. Ang NP mo patuloy na kasama sa kolaisyon. Hindi tnanggalan ng mga komite sa House. Tingnan mo nga ang magkapatid na Remulla na alipores mo noon pa man hanggang sa ngayon. Pati nga ama nila kapural mo sa land-grabbing sa Cavite. Si Boying, bumoto para kay GMA; si Gilbert, bumoto laban.)
Mula sa fertilizer scam, Hello Garci, NBN-ZTE broadband, north at south rails, inimbestigahan ang mga ‘yan sa ilalim ng aking pamumuno bilang Senate President. Pinangunahan ng partido Nacionalista ang pag-iimbestiga. Nasaan sila noon?
Sa halip na tumulong ay nakiisa sila sa Administrasyong Arroyo upang palitan ako bilang Senate President. Opo, nakiisa si Noynoy Aquino at Mar Roxas upang tanggalin ako sa puwesto. At nang sila na ang nakaupo, inimbestigahan ba nilang muli si Arroyo? Hindi. (Bulaan ka. Akala mo magagago mo ang taong-bayan. Si Ping Lacson na kailanman ay hindi mo kasama ang siyang nagbunyag ng mga iskandalong iyan. At ikaw, nag-chairman ka nung imbestigasyon sa jueteng. Matapos ang ilang hearing na nagpa-pogi ka lamang, hindi ka naglabas ng committee report. Bakit? Pakiusap ni Mike Arroyo, ni Mikey, ni Iggy?)
Ako daw ang sikretong kandidato ni Gloria, ngunit kaninong mga kamag-anak ang kasama ng mga Arroyo sa poder maging hanggang sa kasalukuyan? Hindi ba’t ang mga Cojuangco at mga Aquino? (Oo nga. Ayaw lang sabihin ni Noynoy na hanggang sa mamatay si Cory, galit sa mga iyan dahil nakipag-cooperate kay GMA maski na alam ang katiwalian at pandaraya nito. Masagwa lang na sabihin pa ni Noynoy ang ganoon ukol sa mga kamag-anak na ilan.)
Ilan sa mga dating miyembro ng gabinete ni Arroyo ang nasa grupo ngayon ni Aquino? Dapat bang paniwalaan na nanatili silang malinis sa kabila ng ilang taong paninilbihan sa isang tiwaling pamahalaan?
Ang C5 Road Extension
Mga hipokrito’t mapagpanggap, ako ang inimbestigahan nila sa halip na ang administrasyong kanilang kunwari’y pinupulaan.
Kung totoong may kinalaman ako sa diumano’y kontrobersiya sa C5 Road Extension, di sana’y sa husgado nila ako kinasuhan. Wala akong immunity kagaya ng isang Pangulo Gloria Arroyo. Madali akong maisasakdal kung talaga mayroon silang ebidensiya. (Sa kababayan mong si Merceditas Gutierrez na Ombudsman? Ha, ha, ha!)
Sa halip ay pinulitika nila ang Senado. Ang mga taong nagtanggal sa akin bilang Senate President ay siya ring nagsabing may kinalaman ako sa C5. (Bakit hindi mo hinarap ang mga akusasyon sa Senado? Kaya nga sabi ni Enrile, duwag ka. Sinubukan mo pa siyang suhulan.)
In truth, like the Cojuangco-Aquinos, Araneta-Roxases, and Madrigals, these are the old-rich in Philippine society who cannot and will not accept that someone who comes from the ranks of the poor may just one day lead this nation.
Hindi kayang tanggapin ng mga naghaharing-uring mga ito na isang katulad kong dating mahirap ang mamumuno sa ating bansa. At upang huwag suportahan ng ating mga kababayan ang kagaya nilang hindi haciendero o nagmula sa angkan ng mga pulitiko, sari-saring dumi at baho ang kanilang iimbentuhin upang mapanatili ang kanilang mga pamilya sa kapangyarihan. (Si Quezon, Quirino, Garcia, Macapagal, mga galing din sa hirap. Pero hindi sila nangurakot, o nagsamantala nang grabe --- bilyun-bilyon mula sa kaban ng bayan, tulad mo.)
Babawiing gastos sa kampanya?
Napakalaki na raw ng ginastos ko sa kampanya. Babawiin ko raw ito kung sakaling umupo ako sa Malacanang.
Nangarap po akong maging Speaker of the House of Representatives, natupad ko na ito. Nangarap po akong maging Senate President, natupad ko na rin ito. Ang pagiging Pangulo na marahil ang pinakamatayog sa aking mga pangarap.
Nang mga panahong pinagsasaluhan ng aking pamilya ang kakarampot na pagkain sa mesa, nang mga panahong kailangan kong magbanat ng buto para makapag-aral, nang mga panahong may magkakasakit sa pamilya at wala kaming mahugot na pambili ng gamot --- nang mga panahon ding iyon ay pinangarap kong sana’y magkaroon tayo ng Pangulong kayang tumulong upang wakasan ang ating kahirapan.
Isinilang ang pangarap na iyon sa aking kamusmusan. Ngayong ako’y may sapat nang kakayahan upang tuparin iyon, bakit ko tatalikuran ang pagkakataong makapagsilbi sa mga taong katulad ko’y nangarap ng isang mas magandang bukas?
Hindi ako isinilang na anak ng isang pangulo’t isang bayani, ngunit sa aking mga mata’y wala nang hihigit pa sa kadakilaan at kabayanihan ng aking mga magulang.
If an haciendero can claim to never besmirch the legacy of his parents, why can’t a Tondo boy say the same?
Bakit ko rin yuyurakan ang ala-ala ng aking ama? Bakit ko rin sisirain ang pangalan ng aking inang bagama’t bulag ay makikita pa rin kung ako ay naging mabuti o masamang pangulo?
Hindi ba’t sa isang anak ay magkasing-halaga ang sakripisyo ng isang Cory na pangulo ng Pilipinas at isang Coring na tindera sa Divisoria? (Tama. Kaya dapat hindi ka magsinungaling, na para bang walang ginawa ang mga magulang mo para umasenso sa buhay.)
Gumastos ako upang magpakilala. Ginastos ko ang salaping aking pinaghirapan mula pa pagkabata.
Hindi ako nangungutahang-loob sa mga campaign contributors. Wala akong kailangang pagbayaran sakaling maging pangulo. Ilang mga pulitiko, mayayamang pamilya, at mga kamag-anak ang kailangang pagbayarang-utang ng isang Noynoy Aquino?
Kung may pinagkakautangang-loob man ako, ito ay ang mga kasama kong lumaki sa Tondo at kasamang nagtingda sa Divisoria na nagsilbing inspirasyon sa aking kinatatayuan sa kasalukuyan.
Hindi gaya ni Noynoy, mayroon akong mga anak. Dangal at magandang pangalan ang gusto kong ipamana sa kanila.
Hindi ako magnanakaw!
Hindi magnanakaw
Sabi niya sa kanya ang mga linyang ito?
Nagnakaw na po siya simula nang naging maging bahagi at nakinabang siya sa isang pamilyang nagkait sa mga magsasaka ng Luisita sa lupang sila dapat ang nagmamay-ari.
He was a Congressman, he is a Senator. Why didn’t he do anything?
Dapat bang paniwalaan ang pangako niya ngayong tumatakbo siyang pangulo gayung naging bulag, bingi, at tamad siya sa lumipas na napakaraming mga taon?
(Ang mga batas na ipinasa mo, na iilan lang sa totoo lang, ay pawang para maka-parte ang mga kumpanya mo sa kaban ng bayan – Unified Home Lending and Mortgage Act, na siyang naging pundasyon ng bilyones mo sa low-cost housing. At ang SPAV, para masalba ang mga kumpanya mong lubog sa utang noong Asian crisis.)
Ang mambabatas na walang ipinasang batas ay pangulong hindi kayang panguluhan ang bansa.
The Luisita farmers shall have their land not under another Aquino regime. They shall have it under my presidency! (E yung mga ni-land grab mo sa Norzagaray? Sa Cavite)
Ang isyu
‘Yan po ang isyu sa eleksiyong ito at hindi ang paninirang-puring patuloy na pinagkukublihan ng salat sa kakayahan.
Kasinungalingan ang sabihing may sinseridad mamuno ang isang kandidatong hindi namuno at nanilbihan ng tapat sa mga posisyong kanya nang nahawakan.
Kasinungalingang sabihing mamumuno ng mahusay ang taong walang track record.
An incompetent cannot run a government. His advisers will do that for him. Ang isang mangmang ay paiikut-ikotin lamang ng mga buwitreng nakapaligid sa kanya.
A vote for Manny Villar is a vote for Manny Villar. A vote for Noynoy Aquino, is a vote for his thousand advisers.
Laban ito ng isang Tondo boy sa isang haciendero sampu ng kanyang mga kamag-anak, alipores, at tagapagpayo,.
Sa tulong at tiwala ninyo, hindi ko sila uurungan.
(Siya, sige na. Laban!)
Sa napakatagal na panahon ay nanahimik ako. Naniwala at patuloy akong naniniwalang may mas mahahalaga pang isyung dapat harapin sa halalang ito kaysa sa magbatuhan ng putik, lalo na kung ito’y pawang kasinungalingan lamang.
He claims he is the son of heroes. Heir to the legacy of his parents, their courage, and integrity. Ngunit bakit siya nagtatago sa likod ng black propaganda? Hindi ba’t utang din niya sa sambayanan ang ipaalam sa mamamayan ang kanyang plataporma, kakayahan, at kapasidad na mamuno? (Ano ang black propaganda? Kapag hindi totoo ang sinabi o isiniwalat, iyan ang black propaganda. Hindi si Noynoy ang naka-diskubre na nagsinunagling si Villar ukol sa pagkamatay ng kapatid niya na siya mismo ang naglabas sa TV afvertisement. Ito’y trabaho ni Billy Esposo ng Philippine Star at ako na nagsusulat sa Malaya. Ibinahagi naming an gaming impormasyon kina Winnie Monsod, Sonny Coloma, Conrad de Quiroz at Manolo Quezon na aming kaibigan). Dokumentado ang aming inilathala, at maging ang GMA 7 at ABS-CBN ay pinatunayang sila ay nagtungo sa kaukulang mga ahensya ng pamahalaan upang i-verify kung totoo ang mga dokumento namin.
The issue in this election or any election is competence and track record. Why does he keep quiet on these issues?
Inapi raw sila. Ano naman ang natutunan niya sa karanasang ito?
Noong sinabi kong ako’y ipinanganak na mahirap, kaakibat nito ang leksiyong patuloy na mangarap sa kabila ng kahirapan. Nagsipag ako, nagtiyaga. Natuto akong makipagkapwa-tao sa mga tulad kong isinilang na salat sa oportunidad.
Bakit siya naman ngayon ang nang-aapi? (Paano naman aapihin ang bilyonaryo na napakyaw na ang halos lahat ng airtime sa TV at radio, at marami nang nabiling mga media?)
The issues he and his thousand advisers have hurled against me, have hurt not only me but my family and friends. Nasaktan na po ang aking pamilya, maybahay, mga anak, mga kapatid, at ang aking ina.
Paano mo sasabihin sa isang tindera ng hipon at isda na hindi talaga siya mahirap? Paano mo sasabihin sa aking mga kapatid na karangyaan pala ang magsiksikan sa isang banig at isang kulambo, gayung mas malaki pa ang kulungan ng aso ng isang haciendero sa aming tahanan?
Panahon nang basagin ko ang kanilang mga kasinungalingan. Utang nating lahat na mga kumakandidato, Nacionalista man o Liberal, na ipaalam sa taumbayan ang katotohanan. (Siya lang ang nagsasabi ng mga ito. Walang nagsasabing kailanman ay hindi sila naging mahirap. Kung sakaling nag-umpisa man silang mahirap, umasenso sila, sa sipag at tiyaga ng ama’t ina niya, at hindi dahil kay Manny Villar Jr.)
Anak ng Tondo
Kasinungalingan ang kanilang paratang na hindi ako kailanman ipinanganak na mahirap.
Katotohan. Ako si Manuel Bamba Villar, Jr., isinilang sa 500 Moriones St., Sta. Maria, Tondo Manila. Ang aking ama ay isang kawani ng pamahalaan, ang aking ina ay naglalako ng isda at hipon sa palengke. Siyam kaming magkakapatid. Nanirahan kami bilang mga squatters. Natutulog kaming siyam na magkakapatid sa isang makitid na banig sa isang maliit na kulambo.
Kapag umuulan tumutulo ang tubig-ulan mula sa butas-butas na bubong ng aming bahay. Kapag malakas ang ulan at bumabaha sa paligid ng aming tinitirhan, naglulutangan ang mga basura sa paligid. Wala kaming pakialam na naliligo sa ulan, lumalangoy sa baha.
Ganyan ang maging mahirap. Bata kami, walang mga ilog at beach sa kamaynilaan. Lalo namang walang swimming pool, jacuzzi, o bath tub sa aming lugar. Sabik kaming lumangoy kahit na sa dagat ng basura.
Hindi nila ito kainlanman mauunawaan.
Tindero sa Divisoria
Kasinungalingang mayaman daw kami kaya sa pribadong Catholic school ako nag-aral.
Katotohanan. Nag-grade 1 ako sa Isabelo de los Reyes elementary school. Kung mayaman kami, sana nag-nursery, kinder, at prep pa ako, pero hindi. Nag-drop out ako sa Isabelo de los Reyes, inaamin ko. Mas ginusto ko pang maglakwatsa at tumulong sa nanay kong magtinda sa Divisoria. (Magkasing-edad kami ni Villar. E talaga namang wala pang mga nursery noon. Isang taong kinder tapos Grade One na agad, sa private school. Sa public, deretso na sa Grade One.)
Ang sinasabi nilang Holy Child Catholic School ay dating maliit na paaralang itinayo ng mga pari para sa mga mahihirap. Malapit sa aming bahay, at walking distance lamang. Dun ako nag-aral. “Pribado” dahil hindi pinapatakbo ng pamahalaan pero hindi pribadong kagaya ng La Salle o Ateneo na alam natin ngayon.
Pag gabi, naglalakad kami ng nanay ko papuntang Divisoria. Bumibili kami ng ilang banyerang hipon para itinda sa palengke. Sa likod ng puwesto, sa isang makitid na bangko ako natutulog. Pag dating ng umaga, nagtitinda kami.
Buong buhay ng ina ko, nagtinda siya ng hipon. Bulag na siya ngayon, ngunit patuloy na naluluha sa tuwing maririnig niya ang mga kasinungalingang ipinapakalat ng mga taong kainlanman ay hindi mauunawaan kung paano maging mahirap. (Sadyang kaawa-awa si Aling Curing. Kasi minamaliit ni Manny Villar ang dinanas niyang hirap, mai-angat lang ang buhay ng mga anak. Pinalalabas ni Villar sa kanyang mga advertisement na tila inutil ang ama’t ina na sila ay bigyan ng mas mabuting kabuhayan. Dapat siya ang mahiya sa ina niyang nagpakahirap para itaguyod sila.)
Napakarami nilang nahagilap na dokumento, bakit hindi sila pumunta sa Divisoria at ipagtanong sa mga matatanda doon si Coring na tindera ng hipon, si Nanay Coring na ina ko? Bakit hindi nila puntahan ang mga batang kasama kong nag-swimming sa dagat ng basura o ang mga nakakita sa aking matulog sa gitna ng lansangan?
Katotohan ba talaga o paninirang puri ang motibasyon sa likod ng kanilang pag-iimbestiga?
Ang aking kapatid
Kasinungalingan at kalapastanganang kwestiyunin nila na kahirapan nga ang dahilan ng pagkamatay ng aking kapatid. (Siya ang naglabas noon sa TV, hindi kami)
Katotohanan. Oo, naospital siya sa FEU. Oo, Funeraria Paz ang nag-asikaso sa pag-eembalsamo sa kanya. Alin diyan ang patunay na kailanman ay hindi kami naging mahirap? (Wala namang nagsasabi na kailanman ay hindi sila naging mahirap.)
Idinala siya sa FEU dahil may kamag-anak kami roon na maaaring tumulong upang mapadali ang pag-admit sa kanya. Dahil ba sa mahirap kami ay hindi na namin nanaising makatanggap ng magandang serbisyo ang miyembro ng pamilyang may sakit? Bakit hindi nila sinabing sa charity ward siya tinanggap? (Wala nang record ukol dito. Sinabi niya sa charity ward. Fine. Sa dami nang nagpupunta sa charity ward, hindi kaya sila sinabihan ng duktor na i-uwi na lang ang kaawa-awang bata, dahil wala namang gamot sa leukemia, at nang hindi na sila gumasta pa ng walang kahihinatnan?)
Namatay siya sa Leukemia, sakit ng lahi namin. Nang mga panahong iyon, hindi namin lubusang nauunawaan ang ibig sabihin ng Leukemia. Lumalaki ang tiyan niya, at wala kaming sapat na perang pambili ng gamot. Ganunpaman, sa panahong kailangan na siyang itakbo sa ospital, iisipin pa ba naman namin na wala kaming pambayad? Iisipin pa ba naman namin na wala pang teknolohiya para sa bone marrow transplant gaya ng sabi ni Esposo?
Sa mahirap, ang cancer ay cancer. Sa mahirap, ang pamilya ay pamilya. Anuman ang sabihin nila, igagapang, ipagpapalimos, ipagmamakaawa ang isang kamag-anak na may sakit.
Nang mamatay siya, at nag-iiyakan kami, iisipin pa ba naman namin kung pang-mayaman o pang-mahirap ang funeraria na mag-eembalsamo sa namatay? Tatanguan nalang namin ang unang ahenteng lalapit, pipirmahan nalang ang unang dokumentong iaabot para lang maisaayos ang bangkay.
Sa bahay siya ibinurol, kasama ng kanyang mga pangarap dahil maaga siyang binawian ng buhay.
Kami na lamang ang nangarap para sa kanya. Ipinagpapatuloy naming ang pangarap na ito hanggang sa ngayon.
Binanggit ko ang kanyang kuwento sa aking commercial upang magbigay-inspirasyon sa kapwa naming mahihirap.
They violated the memory of my brother by putting spins on our life and his death. This is what Noynoy Aquino and the Liberal Party call principled campaign. Cheap politics. Cheap politicians!
Hindi sila mga Diyos para magsabing bawal mangarap ang mahihirap! (Walang nagsasabing bawal mangarap ang mahirap. Ang aming tanong ay simple --- bakit kailangan mong magsinungaling? Bakit kailangan mong gamitin ang kaawa-awa mong kapatid sa iyong pagsisinungaling?)
Lupa sa Navotas
Natatakot kayong maniwala ang mga mamamayan sa aking kuwento dahil natatakot kayong maglakas-loob ang mga magsasaka’t mga kasama na pangaraping balang araw ay ariin ang inyong mga hacienda, ang lupang kanilangang binubungukal at pinagyayaman.
Minamana ninyo ang inyong mga lupain at ari-arian. Dangal lamang ang maipapamana ng mahihirap sa kanilang mga anak.
Nangarap ang aking pamilya, nagsipag at nagtiyaga. Ipinangutang sa gobyerno ang lupa at tahanang nilipatan.
Hindi ito kagaya ng San Raphael Village na binabanggit ni Winnie Monsod. Hindi ito exclusive subdivision noon, walang gate, walang guwardiya. Hindi sementado, hindi aspaltado. Isang kapirasong lupa sa Navotas, malapit sa Smokey Mountain, lubog sa baha tuwing umuulan.
Kasinungalingang sabihing patunay ito na hindi kami naghirap.
Ang katotohanan ay patunay itong unti-unti man ay nakaangat din kami at maaaring makaahon ang sinumang matapang na haharapin ang mga hamon ng buhay. (Tama ka diyan. Uma-angat na kayo noon. Kaya hindi nga totoong namatay si Danny “dahil wala kayong perang pampagamot”. Sa katunayan, ang mga nagsipagbilihan doon at nanirahan sa San Rafael Subdivison ay tulad nina Wilson Tieng ng Solar Films, na anak ng may pinakamalaking tindahan ng pinggan at gamit pang-kusina noon pa man, sa Echague. Maging si Robin Sy, naging pangulo ng Federation of Chinese Chambers of Commerce, at sina Yao Eng Hue, na isa sa pinakamalaking pabrika ng gomang chinelas ang pag-aari). Ang ama ni Villar ay hindi ordinaryong kawani ng pamahalaan, kundi budget officer ng Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Sino ang tuta ni Arroyo?
Ang katotohana’y naninira sila upang pagtakpan ang kahinaan ng kanilang kandidato. Ang katotohanang sa loob ng tatlong termino sa mababang kapulungan at kalahating termino sa senado ay walang naipasa ni isang batas si Noynoy Aquino.
‘Yan naman ang kanilang sagutin. Hindi ba’t trabaho ng isang mambabatas ang magpasa ng batas? Hindi ba’t nangako at nanumpa siyang gagampanan ang responsibilidad na ito, sa mamamayan, sa Diyos, at sa Konstitusyon ng Pilipinas?
Walang-bahala, iresponsable, at tamad, ipagkakatiwala ba natin sa kanya ang kinabukasan ng ating bayan?
Nasaan si Aquino nang iniimbestigahan ang Hello Garci? Hindi ba’t hinarangan niya ang pagpapatugtog ng Hello Garci tapes upang protektahan ang kanyang kaalyadong si Gloria Arroyo? (Ikaw nga diyan ang nanahimik. Buti pa nga ang mga Liberal, hiniling ang resignation ni GMA, at kumalas sa koalisyon. Kanya nga nahati sila sa tinaguriang Drilon wing na oposisyon, at Atienza wing na maka-Gloria. Ang NP mo patuloy na kasama sa kolaisyon. Hindi tnanggalan ng mga komite sa House. Tingnan mo nga ang magkapatid na Remulla na alipores mo noon pa man hanggang sa ngayon. Pati nga ama nila kapural mo sa land-grabbing sa Cavite. Si Boying, bumoto para kay GMA; si Gilbert, bumoto laban.)
Mula sa fertilizer scam, Hello Garci, NBN-ZTE broadband, north at south rails, inimbestigahan ang mga ‘yan sa ilalim ng aking pamumuno bilang Senate President. Pinangunahan ng partido Nacionalista ang pag-iimbestiga. Nasaan sila noon?
Sa halip na tumulong ay nakiisa sila sa Administrasyong Arroyo upang palitan ako bilang Senate President. Opo, nakiisa si Noynoy Aquino at Mar Roxas upang tanggalin ako sa puwesto. At nang sila na ang nakaupo, inimbestigahan ba nilang muli si Arroyo? Hindi. (Bulaan ka. Akala mo magagago mo ang taong-bayan. Si Ping Lacson na kailanman ay hindi mo kasama ang siyang nagbunyag ng mga iskandalong iyan. At ikaw, nag-chairman ka nung imbestigasyon sa jueteng. Matapos ang ilang hearing na nagpa-pogi ka lamang, hindi ka naglabas ng committee report. Bakit? Pakiusap ni Mike Arroyo, ni Mikey, ni Iggy?)
Ako daw ang sikretong kandidato ni Gloria, ngunit kaninong mga kamag-anak ang kasama ng mga Arroyo sa poder maging hanggang sa kasalukuyan? Hindi ba’t ang mga Cojuangco at mga Aquino? (Oo nga. Ayaw lang sabihin ni Noynoy na hanggang sa mamatay si Cory, galit sa mga iyan dahil nakipag-cooperate kay GMA maski na alam ang katiwalian at pandaraya nito. Masagwa lang na sabihin pa ni Noynoy ang ganoon ukol sa mga kamag-anak na ilan.)
Ilan sa mga dating miyembro ng gabinete ni Arroyo ang nasa grupo ngayon ni Aquino? Dapat bang paniwalaan na nanatili silang malinis sa kabila ng ilang taong paninilbihan sa isang tiwaling pamahalaan?
Ang C5 Road Extension
Mga hipokrito’t mapagpanggap, ako ang inimbestigahan nila sa halip na ang administrasyong kanilang kunwari’y pinupulaan.
Kung totoong may kinalaman ako sa diumano’y kontrobersiya sa C5 Road Extension, di sana’y sa husgado nila ako kinasuhan. Wala akong immunity kagaya ng isang Pangulo Gloria Arroyo. Madali akong maisasakdal kung talaga mayroon silang ebidensiya. (Sa kababayan mong si Merceditas Gutierrez na Ombudsman? Ha, ha, ha!)
Sa halip ay pinulitika nila ang Senado. Ang mga taong nagtanggal sa akin bilang Senate President ay siya ring nagsabing may kinalaman ako sa C5. (Bakit hindi mo hinarap ang mga akusasyon sa Senado? Kaya nga sabi ni Enrile, duwag ka. Sinubukan mo pa siyang suhulan.)
In truth, like the Cojuangco-Aquinos, Araneta-Roxases, and Madrigals, these are the old-rich in Philippine society who cannot and will not accept that someone who comes from the ranks of the poor may just one day lead this nation.
Hindi kayang tanggapin ng mga naghaharing-uring mga ito na isang katulad kong dating mahirap ang mamumuno sa ating bansa. At upang huwag suportahan ng ating mga kababayan ang kagaya nilang hindi haciendero o nagmula sa angkan ng mga pulitiko, sari-saring dumi at baho ang kanilang iimbentuhin upang mapanatili ang kanilang mga pamilya sa kapangyarihan. (Si Quezon, Quirino, Garcia, Macapagal, mga galing din sa hirap. Pero hindi sila nangurakot, o nagsamantala nang grabe --- bilyun-bilyon mula sa kaban ng bayan, tulad mo.)
Babawiing gastos sa kampanya?
Napakalaki na raw ng ginastos ko sa kampanya. Babawiin ko raw ito kung sakaling umupo ako sa Malacanang.
Nangarap po akong maging Speaker of the House of Representatives, natupad ko na ito. Nangarap po akong maging Senate President, natupad ko na rin ito. Ang pagiging Pangulo na marahil ang pinakamatayog sa aking mga pangarap.
Nang mga panahong pinagsasaluhan ng aking pamilya ang kakarampot na pagkain sa mesa, nang mga panahong kailangan kong magbanat ng buto para makapag-aral, nang mga panahong may magkakasakit sa pamilya at wala kaming mahugot na pambili ng gamot --- nang mga panahon ding iyon ay pinangarap kong sana’y magkaroon tayo ng Pangulong kayang tumulong upang wakasan ang ating kahirapan.
Isinilang ang pangarap na iyon sa aking kamusmusan. Ngayong ako’y may sapat nang kakayahan upang tuparin iyon, bakit ko tatalikuran ang pagkakataong makapagsilbi sa mga taong katulad ko’y nangarap ng isang mas magandang bukas?
Hindi ako isinilang na anak ng isang pangulo’t isang bayani, ngunit sa aking mga mata’y wala nang hihigit pa sa kadakilaan at kabayanihan ng aking mga magulang.
If an haciendero can claim to never besmirch the legacy of his parents, why can’t a Tondo boy say the same?
Bakit ko rin yuyurakan ang ala-ala ng aking ama? Bakit ko rin sisirain ang pangalan ng aking inang bagama’t bulag ay makikita pa rin kung ako ay naging mabuti o masamang pangulo?
Hindi ba’t sa isang anak ay magkasing-halaga ang sakripisyo ng isang Cory na pangulo ng Pilipinas at isang Coring na tindera sa Divisoria? (Tama. Kaya dapat hindi ka magsinungaling, na para bang walang ginawa ang mga magulang mo para umasenso sa buhay.)
Gumastos ako upang magpakilala. Ginastos ko ang salaping aking pinaghirapan mula pa pagkabata.
Hindi ako nangungutahang-loob sa mga campaign contributors. Wala akong kailangang pagbayaran sakaling maging pangulo. Ilang mga pulitiko, mayayamang pamilya, at mga kamag-anak ang kailangang pagbayarang-utang ng isang Noynoy Aquino?
Kung may pinagkakautangang-loob man ako, ito ay ang mga kasama kong lumaki sa Tondo at kasamang nagtingda sa Divisoria na nagsilbing inspirasyon sa aking kinatatayuan sa kasalukuyan.
Hindi gaya ni Noynoy, mayroon akong mga anak. Dangal at magandang pangalan ang gusto kong ipamana sa kanila.
Hindi ako magnanakaw!
Hindi magnanakaw
Sabi niya sa kanya ang mga linyang ito?
Nagnakaw na po siya simula nang naging maging bahagi at nakinabang siya sa isang pamilyang nagkait sa mga magsasaka ng Luisita sa lupang sila dapat ang nagmamay-ari.
He was a Congressman, he is a Senator. Why didn’t he do anything?
Dapat bang paniwalaan ang pangako niya ngayong tumatakbo siyang pangulo gayung naging bulag, bingi, at tamad siya sa lumipas na napakaraming mga taon?
(Ang mga batas na ipinasa mo, na iilan lang sa totoo lang, ay pawang para maka-parte ang mga kumpanya mo sa kaban ng bayan – Unified Home Lending and Mortgage Act, na siyang naging pundasyon ng bilyones mo sa low-cost housing. At ang SPAV, para masalba ang mga kumpanya mong lubog sa utang noong Asian crisis.)
Ang mambabatas na walang ipinasang batas ay pangulong hindi kayang panguluhan ang bansa.
The Luisita farmers shall have their land not under another Aquino regime. They shall have it under my presidency! (E yung mga ni-land grab mo sa Norzagaray? Sa Cavite)
Ang isyu
‘Yan po ang isyu sa eleksiyong ito at hindi ang paninirang-puring patuloy na pinagkukublihan ng salat sa kakayahan.
Kasinungalingan ang sabihing may sinseridad mamuno ang isang kandidatong hindi namuno at nanilbihan ng tapat sa mga posisyong kanya nang nahawakan.
Kasinungalingang sabihing mamumuno ng mahusay ang taong walang track record.
An incompetent cannot run a government. His advisers will do that for him. Ang isang mangmang ay paiikut-ikotin lamang ng mga buwitreng nakapaligid sa kanya.
A vote for Manny Villar is a vote for Manny Villar. A vote for Noynoy Aquino, is a vote for his thousand advisers.
Laban ito ng isang Tondo boy sa isang haciendero sampu ng kanyang mga kamag-anak, alipores, at tagapagpayo,.
Sa tulong at tiwala ninyo, hindi ko sila uurungan.
(Siya, sige na. Laban!)
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