Archive for the ‘Manny Villar’ Category

Manny Villar would like voters to believe, his family was almost desperately poor, judging from the songs, rhetoric and political ads that have formed the main narrative of his political campaign.

Contrary to Villar’s claims of being dirt-poor, spending Christmas in the streets, swimming in a sea of garbage and not being able to afford medicine to save his brother’s life, GMANEWS concludes Villar’s Tondo roots were definitely middle class.

Manny Villar’s father, Manuel Villar Sr., was a US-educated Philippine government budget officer and his mother was an enterprising fish dealer, with a choice stall in Divisoria market, one of Manila’s busiest.

• In 1957, when they were very poor , Villar’s father was earning P3,960 a year, four times more than the average annual income of P924.
• In 1961, Villar’s father was earning P448/month, equivalent today to about P35,392/month.
• But the bigger income was probably from Villar mother’s business, from which she earned P80 to P600/day (equivalent to P6,320 to P47,400 PER DAY in 2010).

The Villar family’s conviction about their own poverty in the 1950s and 1960s could simply highlight the different definitions people have of being poor. Having nine children, with one dying of disease, could have left an imprint of hardship on their memories.

Dr. Cielito Habito, an economist at Ateneo de Manila University and a former head of the National Economic and Development Authority, or NEDA said: “They were definitely middle class.“  Habito who helped GMANews.TV convert the elder Villar’s income to today’s money.

Dr. Mary Racelis, an urban anthropologist who did poverty studies in Tondo in the 1960s, says poverty cannot be measured by income alone. Racelis said “There was no way they were poor in Tondo.“  She also said:

• “Housing is a very strong indicator of poverty … They (the Villars) were renters of a home made of strong materials. That does not make them poor.“
• “The really poor in Tondo lived in ramshackle homes of nipa and straw.“
• According to the poor: “the poverty threshold is having three regular meals a day. That’s the threshold in Tondo to this day..”
• “The Villars had a double income, the father was a regular wage earner, they eventually owned a piece of land. They were in the formal sector – they could have been in the upper 10 percent. “

See Full story :
Villar’s Tondo roots were ‘definitely middle class’

Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino spokesman Ralph Calinisan accused Nacionalista Party presidential bet Sen. Manny Villar’s campaign of copying a campaign ad of Argentinean presidential hopeful Ricardo Hipolito Lopez Murphy.

Calinisan said, “The concept, visual cues and even the execution are identical.There is no other way to describe Sen. Villar’s but a cheap rip-off of the original.”

The ad features numerous phrases read sequentially, but when subsequently read in reverse, the phrases convey a different meaning. The viewer’s attention is guided by a bar that highlights the current phrase being read.

“He (Villar) even chose orange as his official campaign color, obviously mimicking President Joseph Estrada who has been using orange as his official campaign color for more than 20 years,” Calinisan added.

Full Story: Estrada camp accuses Villar of being a copycat

Senator Manuel Villar Jr., Nacionalista Party candidate for President that his failure to answer the allegations hurled against him affected his performance in surveys about the electorate’s presidential preferences.

“Yung black propaganda na hindi totoo, naging masyado kaming mabait (We’ve been too kind in handling that false kind of black propaganda),” he said. Villar said he was saddened with the result of a recent Pulse Asia survey, which showed him 12 percentage points behind leading presidential bet Sen. Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino III of the Liberal Party.

Full story: Villar: My failure to answer allegations caused drop in surveys
See list of national candidates
See list of local candidates

Gubernatorial candidate and political kingpin Luis ”Chavit” Singson bared his support behind the presidential bid of Nacionalista Party standard-bearer Sen. Manny Villar. Singson declared he resigned from the Lakas-Kampi-CMD party to support the NP bet.

Singson who is known for his command vote and a highly-respected Ilocos Sur political leader,declared that Lakas-Kampi-CMD local leaders in the province will follow suit in the coming days to throw their support behind Villar. Singson said in a jest he is currently under the ”Lakas-loob” party.

Full story at Chavit, Ilocos leaders leave Lakas for Villar

See Complete list of Ilocos Sur Candidates

Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino dared the Commission on Elections to disqualify any candidate who has violated the Omnibus Election Code, particularly the limit set on airtime for his or her campaign advertisements.

“This is an acid test for our poll officials, and if they fail this one, then the results of the May 2010 national elections will forever be put in doubt,” PMP spokesman Ralph Calinisan said.

Calinisan was reacting to the report recently by the advocacy group, Pera at Pulitika, and based on the data from the AGB Nielsen Media Research, which showed that Nacionalista Party president candidate Sen. Manny Villar has already exceeded his alloted airtime for TV campaign ads, totalling 2,054 minutes.

Complete story : Erap camp to Comelec: Disqualify Villar over campaign ads

See complete List of national candidates

Reuters published excerpts for economic plans of the top four presidential candidates in the Philippines.

SENATOR BENIGNO SIMEON “NOYNOY” AQUINO III

“Noynoy” Aquino vowed to go after tax evaders and big smugglers, to collect an additional P150 billion and raise the government’s current 13% tax efficiency rate to 15%. His action plan includes a “zero budgeting” measure to re-examine all major ticket items under the 2010 budget to recover P 280 billion lost to corruption in 2009.

SENATOR MANUEL VILLAR

Manny Villar vowed to plug tax leakages and spend public funds wisely and prudently. Villar hopes to increase the tax-to-GDP ratio to 17 percent but has not given details on how he would raise tax collection. He promised “zero tolerance” of graft and corruption, adding he would pursue smugglers and tax evaders.

FORMER PRESIDENT JOSEPH ESTRADA

Erap Estrada promised not to impose new taxes and raise tax rates and lower consumption taxes, but he did not give any details of his fiscal programme.   He also promised to improve peace and order, and spend more on agriculture and rehabilitation of badly needed infrastructure.

FORMER DEFENCE CHIEF GILBERTO TEODORO

Teodoro said he would avoid imposing new taxes but if such a move was necessary, he favoured raising consumption taxes from the current 12 percent to 15 percent. In exchange for a higher sales tax, he vowed to eventually lower personal income tax rates and simplify tax administration. Hepromised to study an increase in the excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol.

More details in Economic policies of Philippine presidential hopefuls

Villar denies sending emissary, bribe try

Sen. Richard Gordon accused fellow presidential aspirant Sen. Manny Villar of attempting to bribe him to withdraw from the race.

Villar denied bribing Gordon with a Cabinet post and reimbursement of campaign expenses in order to win him over on his Senate ethics case.

Former President Joseph Estrada revealed that he has received offers to withdraw from the presidential race in exchange for a large amount of cash from a rival candidate.

Villar denied asking El Shaddai leader Bro. Mike Velarde to talk to former President Joseph Estrada to withdraw, saying:
“Wala akong kinakausap…Maski tanungin natin ang lahat ng aking mga nasa planning group, associates, makikita niyo na lahat na meron na akong assumption lahat kami ay andiyan.”

Villar said he has become the focus of the attacks since it only means that he is already leading the race. He also urged Gordon and Estrada to name the alleged emissaries.

See Gordon says Villar tried to buy him out of race

Nacionalista Party standard-bearer Manny Villar said  that the P5 billion yearly budget for Armed Forces modernization is pitifully inadequate as he vowed to bankroll a weapons upgrade from dividends of an anti-corruption drive.

In typical business fashion, Villar describes how he will fund the program:

• The Philippines loses P250 billion to corruption a year, but he believes “if we can get 10 percent from an anticorruption drive the amount will be enough to fund the modernization program of the military.”
• “If we can curb this purported corruption in the military by at least 50 percent, we can generate savings that could be channeled to the purchase of the basic needs of the soldiers in the field like combat boots, combat rations and ammunition”
• “I am thinking of allocating 10 percent of the annual VAT revenue for a replacement program of military ships, aircraft and other hardware.” This translates to a minimum P15 billion “annual fund to replace flying and floating coffins with modern assets.”
• “we can explore barter arrangements in which Philippine-made products can be exchanged for military hardware”
• streamlining AFP expenditures will result in savings can be re-channeled for its modernization.
• “I have been told that there are ways in which we can cut multi-billion-peso annual POL (petroleum oil and lubricant) budget and send whatever is saved to the men on the field”

If elected, Villar said he would tuck in the annual budget he will send to Congress a “meaty” AFP modernization fund “that will be promptly released and properly spent.”

More on Villar vows big budget for AFP modernization