Villar was never a Tondo poor boy
The more we get inundated by all these pro-poor ads of the Villar campaign, the more people balked at how glaring its big disconnect from realities. In fact, we’ve found another ally in Richard Gordon blasting Manuel Villar Jr. for “fooling the poor” with his campaign advertisements because he said, Villar has done nothing to alleviate poverty while in office.
According to Gordon:
“Villar seems to be “exploiting” the poor with his TV ads, where the NP presidential bet claims he will end poverty in the country. “There’s too much exploitation of the poor. Parang niloloko ang mga mahihirap (It appears that he is fooling the poor),” he said of Villar’s advertisements after speaking at the Chamber of Thrift Banks (CTB) National Convention in Makati City on Friday. “When you look at his track record, naging Speaker, naging Senate President, naging congressman, naging senador. Bakit ngayon lang biglang haharap sa mga mahihirap? Ano’ng ginawa niya noong nandun sya?” he said. “All the bills he signed were to enhance housing,” he added.”
(Source: Sorry I forgot to copy the link of the GMA News article)
And that’s the big disconnect between Manny Villar and his pro-poor ads. In fact, here’s a letter to the Inquirer editor which is pretty interesting.
Villar was never a Tondo poor boy
By: Elen Francisco
THE MARCH 7 ARTICLE ON Manny Villar’s house along Moriones Street in Tondo confirmed the belief that he was never poor, never spent his Christmas on the street and never swam in a pool of garbage. In the early 1960s, if you had a three-story house in a 60-square-meter lot in the business district of Tondo, you were considered an aristocrat.
Not too far from that Moriones house were shanties leading to the pier where children went to the nearby public schools for education. Such was not the case of Villar: he went to Holy Child Catholic School for his elementary education and to Mapua for high school. Coming from Moriones going to Mapua, Villar had to pass by three outstanding public high schools: Jose Abad Santos High School, Arellano High School and Teodora Agoncillo High School, and public schools in the latter part of the 1950s and 1960s were at their best.
But not for the Villar children. Because their father was a white-collar employee and they had a businesswoman for a mother, Manny and his siblings were able to study in the best private schools nearby. They had corned beef for breakfast (as told in Villar’s ad with Boy Abunda) and I am pretty sure suahe and other seafoods for lunch or dinner.
During the times that Villar claimed he was poor, his family actually belonged to the AB and upper C economic strata or the top 10 percent of the population. As in the C-5 controversy, in the conversion of agricultural land in Iloilo, in the landgrabbing of the Dumagats’ land in Norzagaray and his questionable use of socialized housing funds among many others, Villar shows a penchant for covering the truth.
I hope television’s investigative journalists can dig deeper into this so the poor people who are being used will find out the truth.
elefrancisco@gmail.com
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reynz is one Uragon and a Filipino-American, has many years of public accounting & auditing, broadcast investments, housing tax credits and equity investments as his background. Based in the US, he maintains his personal and humor blog at reyna elena dot com. A graduate of Aquinas U, he went to GWU and Temple U in the United States.
I wish he’d stop plastering his face on TV. Sobrang OA.
at ayaw ko rin yung sinasama pa nya yung tungkol sa kapatid nyang namatay. pati ba naman yun?
I am so fed up with Villar’s commercials.
Why is he exploiting those children. To make him look innocent in the eyes of the voters?
Please naman, huwag gamitin ang mga bata sa eleksyon. Unpleasant eh.
may bagong TV ad yan…using poor children this time. Grabe!
to add to ms. francisco’s article, a Davaoeno (Chair of NOYPI) sent me a text message that came from someone from Fisheries that said: Villar’s mother was never a fish-vendor, she was a trader. Sa madaling salita, hindi sila mahirap. At ang mga TVCs ni Villar ay nakakainsulto sa mga mahihirap at sa general public na may hiya’t konsensiya and talino. Insulto eto sa mga mahihirap. Tama si Mr. Gordon, ang tagal na niyang nanilbihan bakit ngayon lang niya naisipan tumulong sa mahihirap? sabi niya sa ad niya na kung gusto daw niyang yumaman, eh babalik na lang siya sa pagka-businessman. di ba isang insulto sa ating mga talino yan. As if we were so naive. The reason he’s going into politics is so that he can protects and enhance his businesses. And to get richer and acquire more wealth.
Mga nabibili ni Mr Villar, kung talagang may pagmamahal kayo sa bayan, mahiya kayo sa pagsusuporta nitong taong eto (unless you’re a land-grabber and opportunist). Is Villar the real candidate of GMA? Didn’t GMA ensure da Pacman’s subtle endorsements with appearances? Namamangka ba si Manny sa dalawang ilog? Parang isang ilog lang yan di ba? Go figure.