I am reproducing below in full the recent Philippine Daily Inquirer column of economics professor Solita Monsod in re: presidential candidate and Senator Manuel Villar’s role in alleged expropriation and road construction anomalies which reportedly benefitted his private real estate businesses located in his political turfs in Paranaque City and Las Pinas City amounting to a least Six Billion Pesos.
This raging issue is a politically hot potato that has besieged the normally peaceful and courteous halls of the Philippine Senate for the past days, rendering it virtually paralyzed, immobilized and humiliated in terms of institutional productivity, effectiveness, and public-relations image.
Sen. Villar opted to boycott the senate ad hoc ethics committee of the whole and refused to participate in its proceedings. The committee resolved to sanction (admonish) him and to require him to return to the government the huge amount of the road project that allegedly benefited his businesses.
The Filipino people will decide during the presidential election on May 20, 2010 whether or not they believe the findings and conclusions of the Senate and whether or not they have forgiven Villar.
Get Real
Manny Villar blameless?
By Solita Collas-Monsod
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:06:00 01/30/2010
WHILE the Senate is declaring a moratorium on the discussion of the ethics case against Sen. Manny Villar, here are some incontrovertible facts, presented in Q & A form. The source of the information is also given.
Question: What roadway projects are the subject matter of the Villar ethics controversy? Answer: 1. The Manila Cavite Toll Expressway Project (MCTEP), the original C-5 south extension project, linking SLEX with the Coastal Road; 2. the DPWH C-5 Extension project (CX-5), which together with 3. the Las Piñas-Parañaque Link Project (LPPLP), also links SLEX with the Coastal Road. Source: Senate Report (SR) 780.
Q: Is the CX-5/LPPLP project realignment, as Sen. Jamby Madrigal describes it, or has there been no realignment, as Senator Villar’s allies insist? A: Technically there has been no realignment, because these are two separate roads linking C-5 from SLEX to the Coastal Road. But they are very close together and, in some areas, overlap, as can be ascertained from a site map. Source: interactive map available at www.gmanews.tv
Q: Are there any differences between the MCTEP and the CX-5/LPPLP? A: Yes. 1. The MCTEP is a joint-venture project between the government and a private Malaysian partner, with the government’s financial exposure limited to P2.68 billion for the purchase of the road right-of-way; the private partner is responsible for the construction of the project, for which tolls will be charged. The CX-5/LPPLP is a toll-free, wholly-financed government project costing P6.96 billion; 2. The CX-5/LPPLP is longer than the MCTEP, its extra length essentially covering the LPPLP portion; 3. The CX-5/LPPLP passes through more Villar properties than the MCTEP. Source: DPWH project documents cited as Exhibits A, B and TTTT in SR 780; site map from www.gmanews.tv.
Q: How large are the Villar company landholdings in the immediate vicinity of the questioned road projects? A: At least 50-52 hectares: 40 hectares in the vicinity of the LPPLP; 10-12 hectares in the area between Sucat Road and Multinational Avenue. Source: testimony of Anastacio Adriano Jr., senior vice president and general manager, chief operating officer of Adelfa Properties Inc. and other Villar-owned companies up to 2008; self-styled consultant and political officer of Senator Villar since August 2008. Nota bene: Senate employment records do not include his name. Nota bene: it is not clear whether the 50-52 hectares mentioned above include properties cited in SR 780—roughly 10 hectares in area—to be developed by Villar companies in joint venture with their owners.
Q: What is the involvement of Villar in CX-5 and LPPLP? A: 1. The Project Feasibility Study of the DPWH for CX-5 states: “The conceptualization of and the initial release of funds for the CX-5 Project was initiated by Sen. Manuel Villar whose same efforts also paved the way for the funding of the Las Piñas-Parañaque Link Road [LPPLP]”; 2. Various insertions and amendments (Priority Development Assistance Fund, read pork barrel) in the national government budget over the years 2002-2008 for CX-5 and LPPLP; 3. Adriano (cited above), in the office of and presence of Villar, dictating to the director general of the Senate’s Legislative Budget Research and Monitoring Office (LBRMO) Villar’s proposed amendments to the 2008 budget, including a P400-million appropriation for the CX-5. Source: documents submitted by DPWH, lawyer Yolanda Doblon of the LBRMO, testimony of both Doblon and Adriano, cited in SR 780.
Q: Were the Villar properties bought for road right-of-way overpriced? A: SR 780 argues for the affirmative; PSR 1472 (the resolution signed by Villar and his allies exonerating him from all charges) argues for the negative. This calls for a conclusion of the reader. And to help that along, I have—based on the documented prices and acreage of the lands purchased in connection with the LPPLP—computed the weighted average prices that were paid for the Villar and related properties, and those paid for the non-Villar properties. The results: The Villar/related properties, comprising 23,455 square meters, were bought for P168.1 million. The non-Villar properties, comprising 11,685 square meters, were bought for P22 million. That comes to a weighted average of P7,168 per square meter for Villar’s properties, and P1,880 per square meter for the non-Villar properties. That has to be a statistically significant difference.
Given the above facts—which no one can contest, since they are based on official documents, and not on a he-says-she-says set of assertions—it has to be reasonable to conclude:
1. Since there was already an ongoing project (the MCTEP) linking C-5 to the Coastal Road, it was totally unnecessary to build a second one.
2. Which means that there was a waste of scarce resources. Instead of using only P2.6 billion of government funds for the first project, the government had to spend an additional P6.9 billion for the second, which practically duplicated the first, except for the additional length which happily for Senator Villar, traversed his properties.
3. This unnecessary, wasteful project was certainly Villar’s idea. It is specious to argue that it is a DPWH project. As the DPWH feasibility study states (in black and white), both the CX-5 and the LPPLP were conceived and initially funded by Villar.
4. Villar benefited tremendously from the second project. Certainly, his companies were paid significantly more per square meter for the road right of way (which were mostly bought from him). But that pales into insignificance compared with the tremendous increase in the values of his real estate holdings in the area—at least 50-52 hectares.
Is he blameless? Is the Pope protestant?
See:
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20100130-250236/Manny-Villar-blameless
Addendum:
Was Manny Villar really ever poor?
AS I WRECK THIS CHAIR By William M. Esposo (The Philippine Star) Updated February 07, 2010 12:00 AM
“Nakaligo ka na ba sa dagat ng basura? (Have you bathed in a sea of garbage?)” is the opening line of the jingle of Nacionalista Party presidential candidate Manny Villar which is featured in a television commercial that attempts to project him as having been one of the poorest of the poor. But was Manny Villar really one of the poorest of the poor as what his advertising has been projecting?
A Chair Wrecker reader from Tondo who claimed to know the Villar family when they still resided there debunked that notion of Villar ever having been poor. This information was relayed to yours truly via our response email address.
The former Villar family Tondo neighbor cited reference points to support his assertion that Manny Villar was never really poor — including the claim that Villar’s father used to have a “nikaladong (stainless steel clad)” private Jeep. During the 1950s, a nikaladong private Jeep is a status symbol in Tondo, definitely not the hallmark of a poor household.
Considering how Manny Villar has been dodging the serious issues pertaining to his use of public office in order to add immense benefits and profits to his businesses, your Chair Wrecker decided to do some investigating. Guess what Manny Villar’s online bio revealed:
“Manuel Villar Jr. was born on December 13, 1949 in Tondo, a densely populated district of Manila. He was the second of nine children of Manuel Villar Sr., a government employee, and Curita Bamba, a seafood dealer. As a young boy, he helped his mother sell fish, crabs, and shrimp in Divisoria to help earn money to pay for his education.
Villar finished his education at Holy Child Catholic School in 1962, and finished his high school education at Mapua Institute of Technology in 1966. He attended the University of the Philippines-Diliman and earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1970. He returned to the same school to earn his master’s degree in business administration in 1973.”
In the early 1950s, the rich lived in the big compounds in Ermita and Pasay and what was called New Manila in Quezon City. In Tondo, you found the middle class and the poor as well.
Former president Joseph Estrada also claims roots in Tondo but his family was never poor. Based on his online bio, Villar cannot really justify calling himself poor.
The Villar Tondo home, as shown on his 2009 TV commercials, was made of sturdy materials. It has lasted to this day. His father was employed while his mother operated a fish, crab and shrimp dealership in lucrative Divisoria Market. It may not be Class AB household income but it is definitely not Class E.
Proof that the Villar children were never really wanting is the fact that Manny Villar studied in private schools. The indigent kids went to public school. Enrolling one’s child in a private school is a middle class value and option. The indigent kids who do manage to finish high school would tend to immediately learn a craft in order to be able to earn money right away. Aspiring for a business administration master’s degree is not the usual post high school move of indigent kids.
Villar narrated on his 2009 TV commercial, with Boy Abunda interviewing him, that as a young kid he thought that corned beef was soupy because that was how they used to prepare it at home. This, he claimed, was their way to ensure that everybody had a share.
But the fact is that there are really two ways to cook canned corned beef. One is the dry sautéed type while the other is the soupy type where you can add potatoes and cabbage. Both the rich and the middle class enjoy corned beef both ways.
Also, poor folks, especially a family of eleven, CANNOT AFFORD to eat canned corned beef. For a family of 11 to be eating corned beef confirms that the Villar family is anything but poor. That was the case then and more so now when the poor go hungry or manage to eat only one meal a day. Up to the 1980s, people from the provinces consider it a status symbol to be eating corned beef. That is why canned foodstuffs, especially corned beef, are being displayed in the sala by many households in the provinces for these to be seen by visitors.
For Manny Villar to don this facade of being “poor” once upon a time just to gain political advantage should make every Filipino voter ponder as to what else he would be willing to do just to attain his objective.
See:
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=547396&publicationSubCategoryId=64
Read also:
Editorial
Villar’s challenge
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:13:00 02/09/2010
AT MONDAY’S INQUIRER PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE, Sen. Manny Villar offered a simple but powerful defense of his heavy ad spending. Then he pivoted and issued an even more forceful challenge to his rivals for the presidency. His words are worth quoting in full: “Pera ko naman ang ginagastos ko. Napakahalaga, tanungin din natin, hindi lamang kung magkano na ang nagastos, kundi sino ang nagbibigay sa kanila, dahil baka ito ang ihinalal nating pangulo, at hindi yung nakaharap dito.”(A close translation: It’s my money that I’m using. It’s very important [that] we should also ask, not only how much has been spent, but who is giving [money] to them, because these may be the ones we elect as president, and not the one facing [us] here.)
His challenge, however, is not without complications. It is true that, with the possible exception of Eduardo Cojuangco in 1992 and Juan Ponce Enrile in 1998, Villar is the first nationally known political figure to run for the presidency entirely on his own money. But it is only natural to ask: How does he intend to recover all the money he will spend?
We do not underestimate the public appeal of a self-funded campaign. If Villar succeeds, he will be the first president to arrive in Malacañang financially beholden to no one. (At the height of the Noynoy Aquino euphoria, late last year, the possibility of a people-funded campaign, and thus a president-elect with no major financial debts of gratitude, also animated the Liberal Party.) Philippine polity has not yet reached a sufficient level of maturity to subsidize the cost of party-based elections with counterpart public money; perhaps before then, a self-funded campaign (or one entirely supported by small donations from a broad spectrum of citizens) is the best means to negate the influence of vested interests.
Also, we should also point out that Sen. Mar Roxas, Aquino’s vice-presidential candidate, started pulling away from Sen. Loren Legarda in surveys tracking the vice-presidential contest precisely at the time his camp started investing again in advertising campaigns. Indeed, Roxas (“Mr. Palenge,” who placed first) and Sen.
Jamby Madrigal (“Ja-ja-ja-jamby,” who placed fourth) massively outspent all other candidates for the Senate in 2004. In other words, Roxas shares with Villar a track record of heavy campaign spending.
This was a point raised at the Inquirer debate against Madrigal, one of 10 officially accredited candidates for the presidency. Didn’t you yourself use a celebrity endorser when you first ran for the Senate? she was asked. Madrigal, a surprisingly nimble speaker, responded by striking a contrite note, saying she has seen the folly of her ways. That expensive foolishness, however, spelled the difference between victory in 2004 and defeat in her first run for the Senate in 2001.
Heavy ad spending, in sum, is a sin that covers a multitude of sinners.
What really concerns us, though, is the sheer magnitude of Villar’s spending. Again, it is only natural to ask, How will he recoup his investment? “Pera ko naman ang ginagastos ko.” Precisely. Not even the notoriously generous variety show host Willie Revillame gives away millions of pesos of his own money (it only looks that way). Villar needs to convince the public that he is, in fact, one of a kind, and can give away hundreds of millions, perhaps even the billions that political analysts say are needed to finance a presidential run, away, without thought of recompense.
In other words, at such levels of spending, Villar faces the prospect of himself becoming a vested interest.
See:
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/editorial/view/20100209-252273/Villars-challenge
