The Philippine Online Chronicles

This will be a short commentary of my impression of Manny Villar, one of the leading presidential aspirants for 2010. I attended BlogWatch's sit-down interview with the former Senate President in Taguig a few days ago. My impression of Villar is that he is pragmatic and realistic. He offers solutions that are not the most idealistic, but for him are the most pragmatic. He likes compromises. He manifests them even in his choice of candidates in his national ticket. He would like to unite the country, he said, that's why he brought together personalities from the left and the right to form a broad coalition that would fight poverty and turn this country around.

Villar claims he is the most prepared among the presidential aspirants. He said the next president has no time to lose in rebuilding the country. The next leader has to hit the ground running and there is no time for on-the-job training. He added that the first year is the most crucial, he has to start off outstandingly. His claim to managerial and political expertise is backed up by his solid background in business as a self-made billionaire and as former House Speaker and Senate President.

On platforms and ideologies in general. Villar has a habit of dismissing discussions of ideologies and platforms. It appears from his many interviews that he thinks it is easy for a candidate to hire speechwriters and consultants to draft platforms and mission-visions on paper. What mattered, according to him, is how an aspirant can validate any claim to a platform with past experiences and records. This is one of his main pitches. His plans, he claimed, are backed up by his own past actions, and are not mere promises to deliver.

On education. Having been a student at the University of the Philippines, I had to raise this issue. When I asked what he would do to the perennial issue of budget cuts on education and health care, he started off by laying down the premise that government has three hundred billion pesos in deficit. I found it disappointing, because that is the same reason the present administration has been using all these years to legitimize budget cuts on social services. I thought he would have a firmer stand on this issue since, as he claims, he came from a poor family and he would have understood that he couldn't have attained his present standing had he not attended the state university, or that his brother wouldn't have died had they been able to afford seeing a doctor.

In order to increase spending for social services, he said government has to increase its revenues first. When I asked if it meant new or higher taxes, he said no, except for sin taxes on liquor and tobacco. Plugging the holes on tax collection and creating a competitive merit system on revenue collectors is also part of his plan.

Villar made no mention about negotiating debt relief, or decreasing the budget of unimportant, redundant and anti-people government offices. For a politician who is into compromises, I found this disappointing. Such plan, however, appears in the Nacionalista Party's "response to people's concerns".

On his massive campaign spending. Villar admitted that he is spending a lot, almost all of which from his own pockets. He's a billionaire, after all. It was, he said, his only way to level the playing field among other contenders with celebrity status, with celebrity parents and siblings, or with government machinery. When asked how he planned to recover the hundreds of millions he has and is still spending, Villar said he need not recover it. He claimed that he is content with his family life and had no reason to further enrich himself or his family. It's a weird sense of philanthropy, perhaps. He said he just wants to fulfill his dream of making the lives of Filipinos better, with him as President, and he had no problem spending his money for it. I have reservations in believing his claims at face value, but it seemed frank and honest enough.

It can serve as a positive point, after all. Being his own financier means he is not beholden or indebted to the country's usual kingpins, political financiers, multinational corporations, and even foreign governments who have for years been influencing past presidents and other politicians in the government's policy-making. This actually opens the door to the possibility of independent government policy decisions--of having nationalist economic policies that benefit the masses instead of the multinationals, or of having genuine agrarian reform that defies the landlords, or bigger taxes for the tycoons who have always enjoyed tax breaks and cuts as benefits from their campaign contributions to winning politicians. I don't think such can be said for any other presidential aspirant.

On benefiting from government projects. With regard to the issue of Villar benefiting from government projects, I believe it's true. I personally don't find fault in it, however. It is in the very nature of his real estate business, or many other businesses for that matter, to benefit from government infrastructure. I don't think it is fair to deny thousands of households of government infrastructure simply because a politician built their homes. After all, all businesses, and ultimately the people, legitimately benefit from government infrastructure projects and improved social services, anyway.

Kickbacks and overpricing of government contracts are a different matter altogether, accusations of which haven't been substantially proven on Villar.

On government contracts & corruption. Villar plans to bid out and award all infrastructure contracts within his first hundred days in office, publicly on television. This was his way of proving that he will be serious in eliminating the usual wheeling and dealing in the awarding of government contracts. This was his way of proving to local and foreign investors that his government would be serious in combatting corruption.

On infrastructure and housing. Some of the big-ticket infrastructure projects he mentioned was the connection of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) and the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX), so that there would be no need to traverse EDSA in order to pass through Metro Manila. He also mentioned extending the NLEX to La Union and the SLEX to Lucena. I'm not sure if he mentioned it as a promise or a plan, because either way, it was an almost unbelievable thing to offer.

As a property builder and planner, he laments the chaotic and congested environment of urban centers resulting from lack of planning especially in Metro Manila, which is why he said housing and infrastructure-building will be a key priority in his government.

All in all, I had a fairly good impression of Manny Villar. He is not the perfect candidate, as he said so himself. When I asked about higher funding for education, for example, he did not promise it right away. He only said he could do it if he did something else first, which is to fix the deficit problem. It disappointed me, but it was honest. When asked about the Reproductive Health Bill, he frankly said he does not want it passed as a law, even if it meant alienating some voters. He then offered an alternative health care program to address problems in reproductive health.

When asked questions, he does not give you the most idealistic answer you would expect, but he gives you what he plans to do and how he plans to do it, almost to great detail. He invokes his record and past actions and experiences to back his plans up, which he claims cannot be said for the other leading presidential aspirant. This makes me believe him when he says he is the most prepared among the presidential contenders.

Photo of Manny Villar from author. Some Rights Reserved.

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