Wanted: VP for Villar

Posted on | November 4, 2009 | No Comments

It was my first time to listen to a speech by former Senate president Manny Villar who spoke before the Manila Overseas Press Club (MOPC) dinner forum held last week at the Hotel Intercontinental in Makati City. I must admit I was impressed by Villar’s speech — or whoever wrote it for him — because he talked a lot of sense.

Villar turned out to be a straight talker and spoke without the usual bombastic style typical of traditional politicians before an audience that also included members of the diplomatic community. He was direct to the point and spoke without equivocation of the things he wants to do if given the chance to be elected as the next President of the Republic. He is the presidential standard-bearer of the Nacionalista Party (NP) in the coming May 2010 elections.
Whoever made his speech at the MOPC, he or she captured the essence of Villar as the public knows him — a leader who was born as a “poor boy” from Tondo, Maniila and rose to where he is right now through his own sheer “sipag at tiyaga.” Villar started his speech with a note about the incoming new storm Santi that threatened last week to unleash more damage to the areas previously devastated by typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng one after the other last month.

“The message of Ondoy and of other weather disturbances is simple: In times of crisis one cannot afford to be inexperienced or unprepared. Every second counts. Any hesitation on the part of government and on the part of leadership can be fatal for so many,” Villar pointed out.
Although typhoons are predictable, our government’s readiness and disaster preparedness can never be enough. Year in and year out, hundreds of millions of pesos worth of damaged crops, infrastructure and private properties are lost and countless lives are lost. So on that score, Villar made a point against presidential wannabes who cannot hack it in times of natural calamities that demand quick-thinking and decisive leadership.

But our country, he stressed, faces a far bigger problem than preparing for annual weather disturbances. “That bigger problem is the continuing poverty of millions of our countrymen, a level of poverty that remains un-addressed year after year after year,” Villar cited.
Why? Villar rhetorically asked his audience. Replying to his own poser, Villar postulated: “Because for a long time we have not had leaders who genuinely understood the plight of the poor man – not because they were not intelligent enough, not because they did not care enough, but simply because they were never genuinely poor.”

“If a leader does not know how it feels to worry about food for tomorrow; if a leader does not understand the stress of having to live under a roof that could be carried away by the next typhoon; if a leader cannot genuinely say that he has felt the pain and even the indignity of being poor in this country – then how can he genuinely work for the interests of the majority of our people?” Villar further asked.

Villar made valid points in raising this issue as each and every presidential candidate in the coming May 2010 elections profess to fight for a pro-poor agenda as a platform of government. His rivals include deposed President Joseph Estrada of the Partido ng Masang Pilipino (PMP); Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III of the Liberal Party (LP); and, Defense Secretary Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro of the ruling administration Lakas-CMD-Kampi.
There are also independent presidential aspirants that may include Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chairman Bayani “BF” Fernando, former Public Works Secretary Hermogenes “Jun” Ebdane Jr., and Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero.

“It is easy for anyone to say he understands the plight of our poor – but only those who lived as a poor boy can truly grasp the full burden of poverty,” Villar pointed out. Villar credited his parents for the proper education that he and his siblings got while their family tried to make both ends meet to get out of their poverty living.

This is the reason why, he explained, he chose to go into low-cost, mass housing when he started to pursue his dreams of launching his own business career after he graduated from the University of the Philippines. “And education became for me the great leveler,” Villar said. From his experience as a successful entrepreneur, he underscored the need to re-frame the mindset of Filipino students to aspire to start their own business enterprise rather than just becoming employees after graduation.

Villar’s no frills talk in the course of his 30-minute speech at the MOPC, though, did not put me to sleep but made me think a lot why Filipinos should vote for him. Villar proved to be more articulate and engaging at the question-and-answer that followed his speech at the MOPC. A few days later, one of his rivals in the presidential race could only come up with a non-sequitur reaction to ask why Villar up to now has not chosen his vice presidential running mate. Specifically, it was Noynoy who raised this issue.

As one of the panelists at the MOPC forum, we tried but failed to pin down Villar to name his vice presidential runningmate in the May 2010 elections. Without giving hints, Villar described his “ideal” running mate: “The vice president should subscribe to the objectives of the President and the objectives of the party. This is a Nacionalista Party-led coalition and our primary objective is to get this country out of poverty. The focus would be on achieving prosperity.”

Villar could not be too careful in his choice of his vice president considering the history of his leadership in Congress. When he was Speaker of the House of Representatives, he was ousted after he approved the hasty transmittal of the impeachment case to the Senate against Estrada in 1999. When he was Senate president, he was forced to step down last year at the height of allegations on “double insertion” on the budget against him for his pet project on the C-5 road extension.

Understandably, Villar is obviously trying to be careful in picking his vice president. It has to be someone who would not stab him in the back and cause his downfall from office if ever he achieves his “dream” to become the next President.

After all, Villar did not have the luxury of Noynoy to have Sen. Mar Roxas II who sacrificed to give way to the latter’s belated epiphany of his presidential ambition.

(COMMONSENSE By Marichu A. Villanueva (The Philippine Star) November 04, 2009 12:00 AM)

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