Why we cannot trust Noynoy and Manny

Newsflash: There is a crisis of authority in the Philippines. Our institutions don’t work and we don’t trust the people behind those institutions. Oh, wait…that’s old news.

The word trust means assured resting of the mind on the integrity, veracity, justice, friendship, or other sound principle, of another person. It is a word that means nothing to Filipino voters, specially now that it is a mere banality thrown around by presidential candidates. After all, each and every past presidential candidate had said “trust me” in one way or another. Where are the results?

Let’s face it. In an era where what were considered to be pillars of industry and society – such iconic organisations and communities as Toyota Motors Corp, Wall Street, and the Roman Catholic Church, for example – had imploded, there is a prevailing distrust in the air not just in the Philippines but all around the globe. Institutions that many had relied upon and looked up to for guidance let us down. Malfunctioning brake pads; financial crises and sexual abuses, etcetera, etcetera. Once trust is gone, it is hard to earn it back. Once an individual’s ability to trust is gone, that person becomes completely lost and walks around town without a sense of purpose or meaning. Life is not what it used to be for the person betrayed.

Filipinos have been betrayed time and time again. As a result, a lot of Filipinos walk around devoid of purpose or meaning. They have been continuously betrayed by their government and the very people who supposedly were duty-bound to serve the Filipino people. Institutions like the Senate, Congress and the Office of the President have all been accomplices in that betrayal. Even other elite members of our society who provide essential goods and services like telecommunications, water, and energy cannot be relied upon to put their customers first before the bottom line. They too are collapsing inwards; they just don’t know it yet.

Filipinos do not trust anyone who says “trust me”. Ask the average Filipino who is apathetic about the coming election and he or she will likely just shrug and say “Pareho-pareho lang ang mga kandidatong yan. Mag-nanakaw lahat” (roughly translated, “All the candidates are the same. They are all corrupt”). Regardless of who among the two most popular candidates, Noynoy Aquino or Manny Villar, get the 40% vote in the election needed to place them in the top job, there will still be the 60% of the constituents who didn’t vote for that candidate and likely won’t trust him. That’s a lot of Filipinos who will be walking around town without senses of purpose or meaning in life.

Who can you trust in this environment? Maybe we should all learn from what happened to U.S. President Barrack Obama. President Obama is a good man. President Obama promised change during his campaign. A lot of people trusted him, and that is why he is now in office. Fast forward to now: a lot of Americans are dissatisfied with his performance. As a result, his popularity rating has declined dramatically. President Obama indeed does want change but he has a lot of detractors who don’t subscribe to his ideas around how to implement change in the system. It turns out that it was not going to be easy to institute change. Lots of businesses have vested interests in not seeing the kinds of changes that Obama wanted to implement, specially in the health care system.

This is democracy at work. It’s not easy to implement change in a First World country that practices democracy like the U.S. — and more so in a Third World country like the Philippines where institutions are weak. There is a lot of wheeling and dealing that takes place behind closed doors.

Therefore, if you have a leader like the late president Cory Aquino who was technically a push-over, then the changes that will be made could potentially be more detrimental for the country and its people. This is exactly what happened when the 1987 constitution was drafted. To put it bluntly, the same thing is going to happen if Noynoy Aquino becomes the president of the Philippines because he does not want to touch his mother’s Constitution; one that is hindering our country’s march to progress. This is precisely the reason why we cannot put our trust in Noynoy Aquino as a leader of the Philippines. Since announcing that he is not amenable to public debates anymore, he had all but confirmed that not only is he going to be another push-over like his mother, he also made it clear that he is averse to even just discussing anything but the kinds of changes that he will implement in the system — if there are any to begin with.

Greed is the name of the game in the Philippines. A lot of the people running the show find ways to manipulate the system in ways that belie their claim of having any real stake in the welfare country they are working for and living in. A lot of people say that Noynoy Aquino is not greedy but the question is, does he have what it takes to go after the greedy corporations, which evidently are owned by some of his relations and friends? Furthermore, does he have the guts to implement changes that will most likely be unfavourable to them?

Presidential candidate Manny Villar, who appears to have amassed a fortune in such a short period of time, is just a product of the very system that needs to be changed. Whatever way he made his fortune, the system in place failed to check and ring alarm bells before he got around to covering his tracks. Since greed is the name of the game, it is no surprise that there are people who would actually support his candidacy. It is because they also have vested interests that will benefit from a Villar presidency. And since Filipinos do not ask for platforms from their candidates before going to the polls (due to ignorance), they really have no idea how a man like Villar is going to manage the country while he is in office. Meanwhile, Manny Villar uses a popular game show host to reel in the crowd. To his followers, endorsement coming from this noon-time show host makes up for Manny Villar’s shifty eyes and monosyllabic speeches.

Trust is a word that we need to bring back into our system. We need an acceptable degree of transparency applied to the way we conduct our politics. The only way we can bring some semblance of trust is to ask our candidates what they plan to do once they are in office. The things they say will give us an idea of their trustworthiness. If they can promise something, at least we can hold them on those promises once they are in office. Be afraid of those who don’t even want to say anything because they think that no one is listening anyway, or those who just let their campaign managers and paid entourage do all the talking. They cannot be trusted.

Bear in mind that there are other candidates aside from Noynoy Aquino and Manny Villar. If we have eliminated these two as untrustworthy, then we need to look at the other alternatives that are not afraid to say what they want and are not going to be push-overs once elected.

Source: http://antipinoy.com/why-we-cannot-trust-noynoy-and-manny/

Sinungaling si Manny Villar

How Manny Villar lied and used the death of his brother Danny
AS I WRECK THIS CHAIR By William M. Esposo (The Philippine Star) Updated March 28, 2010 12:00 AM

“Nakaranas na ba kayong … mamatayan ng kapatid dahil wala kang pera pangpagamot (Have you experienced losing a brother because you did not have the money to provide him proper medical care)? — Manny Villar asked in his “PANATA (Advocacy)” TV commercial. Villar was referring to his younger brother Danny who passed away on October 1962. In the same commercial, Villar’s 1962 photo with his younger brother was shown.

This portrayal of being poor once upon a time is a fantasy which comes in a series of similar attempts by Villar to create empathy with the nearly 90% of voters who belong to the socio-economic classes D and E. However, this particular attempt to use his late brother Danny to further his political ambition showed that Villar is as capable of lying just like Madame Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA).

Two public documents — the death certificate of Danny B. Villar and the Transfer Certificate of Title (TCT number: 135396/3194) of the 560 square meter property in the upper class San Rafael Village of Navotas where the Villars had lived when Danny died — shattered this ONCE POOR fantasy that Villar has been peddling.

What the San Rafael Village TCT presents:

1. Before 1962, the Villars bought 560 square meters (SQM) of high valued real estate on Bernardo Street in San Rafael Village where the more affluent folks in the Tondo-Navotas area resided.

2. The DEATH CERTIFICATE of the deceased Danny B. Villar established that they were already residing there in 1962.

3. Based on 2009 prices, the P16,000 GSIS (Government Service Insurance System) mortgage mentioned in the TCT — not necessarily the total cost of the two 280 SQM lots — is now the equivalent of P1,140,000.00. Poor people today cannot even borrow P200,000. Those who are familiar with the subdivision say that the cost per SQM in San Rafael Village today would be around P10,000 per SQM or an equivalent of around P5,600,000 for the entire property.

4. Jun Borres, the present owner who is using the 560 SQM property as offices of his firm, Jumbo Fishing, stated that when they bought it in 1987 – it had a one and a half floor house. The ground floor was made of concrete while the upstairs was made of wood. This was typical upper middle class and upper class dwelling in the 1960s.

Implications of the San Rafael Village ownership

1. Together with established Manny Villar bio information, they could not have been dirt poor to be able to move to San Rafael Village before 1962. His mother was a seafood (shrimp, crab and fish) dealer in Divisoria Market, not a fish vendor as what Villar tries to project. A seafood dealer supplies the vendors. For a family of 11, they ate canned corned beef — which Manny Villar admitted on his earlier TV ad. His father was a government official, said to be a Budget Officer of the then DANR (Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources) under which was the Fisheries Bureau. Manny Villar studied in private schools — the Holy Child Catholic School for elementary and Mapua Institute of Technology for High School. Poor folks send their kids to public schools.

2. Villar’s parents must have had a sizeable combined income to be able to buy the San Rafael Village property. The 560 SQM size demonstrates their financial capacity. If they could, poor people buy lots sized less than 100 SQMs. Villar’s father must also be making a sizeable income from the government to be able to borrow P16,000 from the GSIS. In 1962, senior executives in big corporations made monthly salaries of about P2,000.

What Danny B. Villar’s DEATH CERTIFICATE reveals:

1. It is NOT TRUE that Danny died because they were poor and could not afford proper health care. The stated residence in Danny’s death certificate was the San Rafael Village property.

2. The BIG LIE is further proved by the fact that Danny stayed 13 days at the FEU (Far Eastern University) Hospital where he expired at age 3 years and 8 months. If they were really poor, the PGH (Philippine General Hospital) would have been the affordable hospital to bring Danny. He was definitely given proper health care. FEU Hospital was one of the top hospitals in 1962, before the establishment of the Makati Medical Center and St. Luke’s Hospital.

3. Danny died from CARDIAC and RESPIRATORY FAILURE resulting from COMPLICATIONS OF LEUKEMIA. In 1962, there was no bone marrow transplantation and chemotherapy yet and everyone whether rich or poor died from contracting leukemia.

4. Upon Danny’s death, his remains were turned over to LA FUNERARIA PAZ — then, until now, considered one of the top two mortuaries (Funeraria Nacional, the other). This further disproved Manny Villar’s claim that Danny died because they did not have the money to take care of him.

When Iggy Arroyo was seen as having taken the Jose Pidal rap for his elder brother Mike, many folks felt that it was rather low of Mike Arroyo to place his younger brother at risk. Our culture expects the older brother to protect the younger brother.

In that regard, we can consider Manny Villar as having done worse than Mike Arroyo. At least, Iggy Arroyo was alive and kicking and he could have opted to stay out of the Jose Pidal controversy. But in the case of Manny and Danny Villar, Danny was used to promote a myth when Danny was in no position to agree to his elder brother Manny’s portrayal of his death.

With the propagation of this ONCE POOR fantasy, don’t you think that Manny Villar also desecrated the memory and honor of his parents who strove to be able to provide their children quality education and an upper class domicile?

If Manny Villar can lie and use his dead younger brother like this, what makes you think that he will really improve and not worsen your life? What makes you think that he is not as greedy as he is being charged in this presidential campaign? What makes you think that you can trust Manny Villar?

* * *

 Chair   Wrecker   e-mail and website: macesposo@yahoo.com and www.chairwrecker.com

Pati bibliya gustong baligtarin ni Money Villarroyo manalo lang sa eleksiyon, hesus maryosep!

—– Forwarded Message —-
From: Money Villarroyo
To: Elizabeth Alim
Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2010 9:19:58 AM
Subject: PATI BIBLIYA GUSTONG BALIGTARIN NI MANNY VILLARROYO MANALO LANG SA ELEKSIYON, HESUS MARYOSEP!

http://www.mabuhayradio.com/sections/humor-a-satire/5334-the-battle-for-the-philippine-presidency-is-now-of-biblical-proportion.htm

Comic Relief for the 2010 Philippine Presidential Election

By Tom Seyer

Senior Correspondent, Coconut News Network (CNN Kuno, as coined originally by Romeo P. Marquez)

It seems that all Filipino presidential candidates are running after the so-called “Catholic vote.” But please read Bobby Reyes’ article, Is There a “Catholic Vote” in the Philippines? and perhaps you may agree with the author that it is an exercise in futility because almost all of the presidential candidates are Catholic.

The “Biblical Battle” for the 2010 Philippine presidency started in the Vatican when President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo told the Pope that “God told her to run in the 2004 presidential election.”

Bro. Eddie Villanueva, who was one of Mrs. Arroyo’s opponents in the 2004 presidential campaign, said allegedly that God denied to him that the Almighty ever talked to Mrs. Arroyo. Brother Eddie was overheard saying that he talks to God almost daily and he was assured that Mrs. Arroyo was not one of the Almighty’s phone pals.

However, supporters of Ang Kapatiran Party’s presidential candidate, JC de los Reyes, say that their man is actually the candidate of many Catholic bishops and priests. They claim that the name “JC de los Reyes” means “Jesus Christ of the Kings.”

But former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada allegedly said that he is the only candidate who really follows the Bible. He was said to have reasoned out that after all he observes to the limit God’s command to “go forth and multiply,” as found in Genesis 1:28.

Then former President Erap said that he has made peace with the Catholic bishops as found in these articles:

Détente between Erap and the CBCP (Part I of “Erap and the Bishops”)

Part II of Erap and the Bishops

Erap and the Bishops (Part III)

The supporters of Sen. Noynoy Aquino say that many Catholic voters will vote for their candidate, as he is the son of the yet-to-be-canonized third Filipino saint, former President Cory Cojuangco-Aquino.

However, supporters of presidential front runner Manuel Villar claim that actually Senator Villar was originally baptized as Emmanuel, which means “God is with us.” The Villar supporters also say that ancient Hebrew text regarded the name “Emmanuel” as a pledge of Divine assistance and, therefore, God will not abandon Mr. Villar on election day.

Then the pro-Villar campaigners say that as alphabetically listed, Senator Villar is last in the list. But as found in the Gospel (Matthew 20:16), Jesus declares that in the world to come, “The last shall be first and the first last.” Ergo, Manny Villar wins, if voters will follow the Bible.

Letters of Paul

In the meantime, Paul Villar is being urged by members of the Media Breakfast Club (MBC) to start writing campaign letters. Paul is the Southern California-based nephew of Senator Villar and who was assigned to be the liaison man of the Villar Campaign to the MBC members.

The MBC members suggest that the campaign letters carry these titles:

Letter of Paul to the Corynthians (the supporters of former President Cory Cojuangco-Aquino),

Letter of Paul to the Pilipians (these are the Corynthians who eat a lot of pili nuts),

Letter of Paul to the Gibotians (the followers of presidential candidate Gibo Cojuangco-Teodoro, Jr.), and

Letter of Paul to Galasians (Galas is a district in Quezon City).

Who owns a house like this?

Even if you don’t care about houses just take a look:

Who would have such taste or live in such opulence?

An American Billionaire?
A Saudi Prince?
Louis XIV of France ?

Savour the pictures then scroll to the bottom of the page to see who owns this Work of Art.

This Mansion is in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA and belongs to:
Senator Manny Villar of the PHILIPPINES

While Filipinos starve, and die because of abject poverty ….and while Sen. Villar brags that he had poor beginnings and he had helped his poor countrymen over and over again… but look now.. he and his family live like this…….his GREED kills his poverty stricken fellow Filipinos .  So please consider this seriously in the upcoming elections.
PLEASE send this to everyone you know.
They can send it to everyone they know.
Soon Filipinos around the world will know what this man is doing to the people he wishes to serve if elected President.

This is a Forwarded Email.

Source:
Investec Out of the Ordinary
Please consider the environment before printing this email.

What’s Villar Running For, or From?

FRANKLY SPEAKING
by Frank Wenceslao

Many overseas Filipinos are asking: Is Sen. Manuel Villar running for uplifting our poor countrymen, or from prosecution for the crimes he, Mrs. Villar and close associates are probably guilty of in their rush to build up a real estate development empire and mind-boggling personal net worth of close to $1 billion in only 16 years while the couple is members of Congress?

Up to now Villar maintains he’s from a poor Tondo family. Hence, using as baseline his 1992 statement of assets, liabilities and net worth when first elected to Congress it’s incredible he’d build up a billion-dollar net worth at the end of 2008 even under the most favorable conditions, hence beyond the realm of statistical probability.

Villar should’ve known once he announced his run for president the evidence of his wrongdoings will emerge. Or could this really be his plan to brave the run perhaps by buying the office for it’d be his “safe harbor” anyway? Note that Villar’s spending money for his campaign as though really running from the arms of law.

Another bomb was unleashed by former Senate president Franklin Drilon last week that Villar’s company, Crown Communities Iloilo, bought 12.7 hectares in Jibao-an, Pavia, Iloilo from farmer beneficiaries and converted this first-class irrigated rice land into a residential enclave, Savannah Subdivision.

Drilon claims that under the law, it is illegal to convert first-class irrigated agricultural land into a subdivision. That’s exactly what Villar did in developing the Savannah Subdivision. Drilon charged Villar of the crime as he presented tax declarations and other documents obtained from the provincial government.

Drilon said Villar had obtained approval of the Department of Agrarian Reform to convert the agriculture land into a residential area only in 2007, seven years after construction of the subdivision started in 2000. Hence, a criminal act has gone on for 5 years before the conversion was approved, which should’ve sufficed for the DAR to file criminal action unless, of course, Villar fixed it.

Drilon added that Villar used P4 million of his pork barrel funds to build a 585-meter national road that led right into the entrance of Savannah. “This is the only public works project of Villar in the province,” said Drilon at the Iloilo press conference.

Drilon said that Villar, not content with the 12-hectare Savannah property, bought the adjoining rice lands in the area and amassed a total of 250 hectares of land to expand his residential community. The farmers had no choice but to sell their property, said Drilon, because their irrigation supply had been cut off with Villar’s conversion of the Savannah property which was the primary source of water in the area.

Is this a sample of Villar’s social conscience he’d bring to the presidency?

Drilon, who naturally faces a libel suit if his claims weren’t true, said the source of water was cut off and led to the destruction of irrigation canals whose costs should be charged to Villar the same way the Senate is asking him to reimburse the government of close to P7 billion for the feasibility studies, engineering design and plans, and other preparatory work wasted when Villar’s pressured DPWH officials to change the C-5 road extension alignment to “snake” through and provide ingress and egress for 23 Villar-owned or controlled housing subdivisions arching over parts of Metro Manila, Cavite and Laguna.

Villar’s workers back-filled the canals so they can be classified as non-serviceable, said Drilon, who noted that the value of Villar’s Pavia property in Iloilo shot up to P3,500 per square meter from less than P150 per square meter.

Drilon further said, “This is what we call C-5 and a half. Regardless if it is only half a kilometer, it shows the lack of decency on the part of the developer, Senator Villar, who simply set aside all interest of the CARP beneficiaries to be able to pursue his business interests. The C-5 controversy is simply a tip [of] the iceberg. It is a pattern we now see. We are aware of other subdivisions all over the country where similar practice was followed.”

As usual, Villar dismissed the charges the same way he did the Senate Committee Report No. 780 on the C-5 road extension scandal which, according to Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, a Harvard-trained lawyer, presents a strong case against Villar and if the issue was brought to court and handled by a good prosecutor, the presidential aspirant “will end up in jail.”

Sen. Jamby Madrigal who first brought the charges on C-5 against Villar and his corporations for the insertions he made in the national budget to cover the road extension costs. The insertions are the same as “earmarks” that brought members of the US Congress to jail.

There’s another property bought by Northwinds Prime Properties Inc. (a Villar company) for the amount of Php120,196,780.00 from Sta. Lucia Realty and Development Corp. was mortgaged to Capitol Development Bank (a Villar-owned thrift bank) under the name of ADR Farms in the amount of Php150,000,000.00 on July 4, 1996 which was used as collateral for a Php1,500,000,000.00 emergency loan from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and eventually sold to RCBC Savings Bank by Capitol Bank and then finally bought back by Palmera Homes Inc. (another Villar company).

Here again is a criminal act involving the BSP in questionable private business transactions whose benefits solely accrued to Villar’s owned Capitol Development Bank, Palmera Homes Inc. and, of course, himself.

It’s a fact an important aspect of a crime an investigator looks into is modus operandi. It’s undeniable that Villar’s MO is to acquire undeveloped lands that a road project is planned or can be made to traverse which he’d hasten through insertions in the national budget or using his pork barrel for road construction to the property, inflate its loan value and borrow housing development funds from government lending institutions.

Very neat, isn’t it? Even Mafia mobsters wanting to go legitimate couldn’t have thought of such criminal enterprise. Pamusa’s volunteer Filipino counsels are unanimous that Villar is probably guilty of “corrupt practices of public officers” under the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (RA 3019) Sections 3(a) and 3(e).

Overseas Filipinos are urging the Ombudsman and Integrated Bar of the Philippines members to act immediately and cleanse our electoral system so an elective office especially the presidency in Villar’s case or Congress in Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s case wouldn’t be a “safe harbor” for crimes they’ve committed with impunity.

Moreover, there’re surely evidence that GMA and Villar have “seriously violated laws on US soil” which the FBI can immediately investigate under the US-RP Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty and file the needed legal action in the US which should compel GMA and Villar to withdraw their candidacies, to wit:

1. Mail or Wire Fraud – transferring to the U.S. illegally earned funds or from the proceeds of corruption.

2. Money Laundering – transferring, investing and depositing in the U.S. banking or financial system illegally earned funds or from the proceeds of corruption.

3. Racketeering – violation of the RICO Act which provides that a person who is a member of an enterprise that has committed any two of 35 crimes—27 federal and 8 state crimes —within a 10-year period can be charged with racketeering. Those found guilty of racketeering can be fined up to $250,000 and/or sentenced to 20 years in prison per racketeering count. In addition, the racketeer must forfeit all ill-gotten gains and interest in any business gained through a pattern of “racketeering activity.” RICO also permits a private individual harmed by the actions of such an enterprise to file a civil suit; if successful, the individual can collect treble damages.

When the United States Attorney (prosecutor) decides to indict someone under RICO, he or she has the option of seeking a pre-trial restraining order or injunction to temporarily seize a defendant’s assets and prevent the transfer of potentially forfeitable property, as well as require the defendant to put up a performance bond. This provision was placed in the law because the owners of Mafia-related shell corporation often absconded with the assets. An injunction and/or performance bond ensures that there is something to seize in the event of a guilty verdict.

In many cases, the threat of a RICO indictment can force defendants to plead guilty to lesser charges, in part because the seizure of assets would make it difficult to pay a defense attorney. Despite its harsh provisions, a RICO-related charge is considered easy to prove in court, as it focuses on patterns of behavior as opposed to criminal acts.

Norwalk, CA – 021310

Source: http://globalbalita.com/2010/02/14/whats-villar-running-for-or-from/