WHY I WILL NOT VOTE FOR MANNY VILLAR

24 March 2010

Its quite irritating to watch TV these days. You get bombarded with political campaign ads, most irritating of which, are the 'Manong Johny' ads and the one with street children lip synching to a song now popular even to kids: " ♪ ♫  si manny villar, ang magtatapos ng ating kahirapan ♪ ♫". Its because of these ads that recent surveys show that Noynoy Aquino and Manny Villar are already statistically tied despite Noynoy's convincing lead in previous surveys.....  "♪ ♫ si manny villar, ang magtatapos ng ating kahirapan ♪ ♫" - And there is this Villar radio ad saying: "..Kung gusto ko lang magpayaman, babalik nalang ako sa pagka-negosyante...". My immediate retort was: "BAKIT? UMALIS KA BA?!". What a load of crap. Its misleading, untruthful and to top it all of, intentional.

It has become the Villar campaign's bread and butter to bank on the 'gullibility' of the poor, relying mostly to the mantra used by every 'Trapo' and political opportunist in history: "wawakasan ko ang kahirapan sa bansa kapag ako ang iniluklok ninyong Pangulo!". I thought that after Erap, we Filipinos would be fed up with these empty promises; that we would be wiser, but here we are again. If the latest statics are reliable, then we should brace ourselves for the worse.

Senator Joker Arroyo, then Congressman, pushed that Villar should not be placed in any higher public office because he never did separated himself from his other priorities, which is prohibited by law, since his position would give due advantage to him, as owner of a real estate empire. Villar became Speaker of the House and soon Senate President, nonetheles. During his stint, his influence paved the way for the construction of the C-5 Road Extension and millions, if not billions more to his real estate empire:

Almost all of Villar's ad campaign center's on emancipation of the poor. It does not say how, or even give a hint on what his measures would be. It simply boast that he was poor once and that he liberated himself from it, and that if he could do it, he can do likewise to all poor individuals in this country. This is his, what we Filipinos call, "panata" to the voting public. Statics now say that many believed him, undoubtedly, most of them poor. When it seems all hope is lost, the poor try to find something to cling on. Now, that something is Manny Villar. In their desperate condition, if someone promises an easy escape, they'll take it. "Iboboto ko sya kasi sabi nya iaahon niya tayo sa hirap...".

There are about 23 million Filipinos who live below the Asia-Pacific poverty line (2008 statistics), and more below the established national threshold, about 34 million Filipinos or 40% of the population. If that's not bad enough, our population is increasing by 2.04% per annum that transaltes roughly to 1.9 million Filipinos added to the population every year. With this trend, the labor market would not be able to catch up with the number of unemployed. How, Mr. Manny Villar, will you end poverty? How will you raise the condition of every poor person in this counrty like you promised in your ads?  

Getting rich as an individual is VERY different from liberating the masses from poverty. Erap's version of this was through giving of alms, through charity; there were no concrete and long-term measures done to alleviate conditions of the poor. He focused on housing problems, not for the poor, but for his mistresses. Elevating one's social status is the sole responsibility of the individual - not everybody can do the 'Villar way' or the 'Gokongwei way' of enriching themselves. It should be clear to any Presidential aspirant that what is needed is to create an enabling environment for the poor to enrich themselves. Promising them that YOU will save them from poverty is a poor way to start, not to mention, foolish. Our South-East Asian neighbors have already surpass us because of their economic policies that have been implemented over the years. I'm curious as to what policies Villar have in mind? If he cannot translate his promises to a concrete and reasonable platform, then what he is doing is simple campaign posturing, nothing more.

With all these pretense regaring his campaign and his platform of government, I thnk it is only prudent that the Senate continue with the investigation of the C-5 Road Extension Project. The Filipino people have every right to get to the bottom of this controversy, at least, be more informed on the issues before the coming elections. As Mareng Winnie Monsod said, if there is smoke, there must be fire. If any of the accusations against Villar is true, I would not want a Businessman posing as President to lead this country.

...

Read Recent Post:    places to be when you're stuck in traffic

...