Transcript of interview in Naga with Senator Manny Villar

Ginagamit ang kapatid?

Ngayon me mga grupo na nagtatakang guluhin at siraan ako na hindi daw kami mahirap dati. Nais kong ulitin noong araw, ako po ay ipinanganak…kaming lahat na magkakapatid, dun kami sa 500 Sta Maria, Moriones St, kanto, at dun po kami, 9 kami na isang banig, isang kulambo. Nagtitinda kami ng nanay ko ng hipon.

Sa sobrang sikip naming, nangutang ang tatay ko, nagpatayo ng bahay…pinapalabas ngayon na kami’y hindi mahirap. Hindi naman tama yon. Hindi kami wholesaler, hindi kami broker. Nagsimula kami, nagtitingi kami ng hipon, yan po ay paulit-ulit kong sasabihin.

Truth-Telling

‘It’s time to reveal the truth about the Hacienda Luisita issue and to unmask the “Cory Magic” as nothing but an illusion.’

THE TIME has come for truth-telling!

Not about the so-called “Cory Magic” which an Internet blogger calls as “just an illusion” being perpetrated by Noynoy Aquino’s image makers and the “Yellow Army” of the Cojuangcos to boost his candidacy as the Liberal Party’s bet presidential in the May 10 polls.

Not about the half-truths, outright lies and falsehoods which were peddled as truth by Noynoy’s corps of black propagandists to stop Nacionalista Party standard bearer Manny Villar’s march to the presidency. And neither is it about Aquino’s impoverished grasp of economic as well as foreign policy issues.

Youth Volunteers’ Meeting

When: Monday, March 23, 2010, 1 pm onwards

Where: Ground Floor, West Tower, Philippine Stock Exchange, Ortigas center, Pasig City (Volunteer Center for Villar, beside Union Bank)

For any questions regarding the activity, please contact 0917-8327890. Please spread the word as well! Thank you!

Hacienda Luisita: Unfinished Reform

WHILE NON-PARTISAN with respect to elections, at the same time I am a land reform advocate of long standing, based on research on Operation Land Transfer in the 1970s, the book “Tenants, Lessees, Owners: Welfare Implications of Tenure Change” (Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1976; co-authored with Romana de los Reyes and Virginia Miralao), and many other studies.

Here are the final paragraphs of my SWS paper, “Land and Natural Resources Reform,” written in June 1986, and still pertinent today:

Dangerous Games

A number of readers have asked me why I am zeroing in on Noynoy. Why don’t I criticize Manny Villar or Gibo Teodoro or Dick Gordon? I could, but that would not help in exposing what I consider the most important aspect of this election: the intervention by a former colonial power.

The main objective of this intervention was to frustrate constitutional reform and to make sure that a candidate of their choosing should be elected. That candidate was Noynoy. Originally, it was Mar Roxas but he was not getting anywhere in the polls even with the fairy tale story of his romance with broadcaster Korina, redolent of Imelda and Jacqueline syndromes.

He is the Man

He is the Man: A high school classmate tells why Manny Villar is the best presidential bet for the May 10 polls

Why do I think Manny Villar is the best candidate we have for the May elections?

I knew him from the heart. We grew up together inTondo. I lived in Tayuman, he’s from Moriones but we often saw each other and played basketball. Back in high school, we were classmates in Mapua Institute of Technology in Sta.Cruz, Manila.

Ex-UP Pres. Jose Abueva on Manny Villar

The latest SWS survey again shows Villar and Aquino practically tied considering a statistical error of about 2 %. Aquino has lost so much support from his earliest preference of some 60% last year. And other candidates are also gaining support.

Manny Villar can be our next President. And he will be a good one.

Manny Villar is the target of concerted attack and propaganda from all quarters because he has a good chance of becoming our next President.

Why? He attracts support from the middle class and the lower classes, especially the poor. The rich and upper classes prefer their old friends and allies in the traditional elite.

The SCTEx issue

The 94-kilometer Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx) is presently the longest highway in the Philippines. It connects the Subic Bay Freeport, the Clark Freeport, and Tarlac City.

The Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) was the government arm that oversaw the implementation of the project. According to the BCDA, 85% of the P27 billion cost to build the SCTEx was financed through funds borrowed by the government from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).

Click here to view full SCTEX map

The SCTEx has 11 exits starting from Subic in the south and ending in Tarlac City in the north.

Villar, Aquino remain “tie” in SWS survey

Nacionalista Party (NP) standard-bearer Sen. Manny Villar has not left the top spot and remains statistically tied with Liberal Party (LP) candidate Sen. Noynoy Aquino based on the latest presidential preference survey of Social Weather Stations (SWS).

The SWS survey, commissioned by a leading business broadsheet,  showed Villar garnering 34 percent, just two percentage points away from Aquino’s 36 percent.

With a margin of error of plus-minus 2 points, the ranking of the two presidential candidates are considered tied.

Villar lost one percentage point compared to his previous rating in the January SWS survey but Aquino shed six big percentage points.

Villar, Aquino tied in MST survey

The presidential race remains a tie between Nacionalista standard-bearer Sen. Manny Villar and Liberal Party presidential bet Sen. Benigno Aquino III as shown by the latest survey of Manila Standard Today (MST).

The survey conducted Feb 20-26 with 2,500 respondents revealed that 34 percent chose Aquino while 32 percent chose Villar. It has a plus or minus two percent error margin on the results. Compared with the MST survey done in January, both candidates lost 2 points (Aquino, 36%; Villar, 34%).

Since December 2009, the MST survey showed that Aquino lost 12 points, while Villar improved in January when he gained 7 points.