AMONG ESPOSO, MONSOD AND CUNANAN, I'LL CHOOSE CUNANAN
ANYTIME
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At the rate the political cannibalism of Noynoy Aquino is being hardsold by Billy Esposo and Solita Monsod
and their ilk in Philippine media and Filam internet, let us hear the side of senior columnist Belinda
Cunanan.
Among Esposo, Monsod and Cunanan, I choose Bel anytime, who is a professional journalist. Billy and
Solita just started contributing to newspaper as an avocation; they have had other fulltime jobs. They were
never seasoned journalists. Bel, on the other hand, is a newshen true and through.
I am happy that we have people in professional media who have not bought into the prevarication machine
that Noynoy has desperately relied on, something of course that his campaign headquarters denies but is
all over in the broadsheets.
Is is often said that the type of governance a candidate will have is reflected on how he had conducted his
campaign. I am sad, especially as we enter deep into Holy Week, how malicious and vicious Noynoy has
allowed black propaganda to propel himself to the presidency. This is the legacy that Ninoy and Cory Aquino
have bequeathed Noynoy - the politics of destruction. Even when President Aquino was already in power the
evidence of vindictiveness that she often obcures with her religiosity is all over her six years of administration.
Here Bel Cunanan explains in simple declarative sentences: 1) Her sense of Teodoro's resignation and
prospects for his campaign 2) The perpective of Villar's mother 3) Aquino's camp's pettiness and cattiness,
utter lack of decency and compassion 4) Her husband's first-hand association with Manny as classmate 5)
Where Manny Villar got his billions 6) The danger of this black type of politics to the dreams of the poor.
Now this:
Political Tidbits : Citizens’ candidate?
By Belinda Olivares-Cunanan
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Posted date: March 31, 2010
THE RESIGNATION OF LAKAS-KAMPI CMD presidential candidate Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro as party chair last
Tuesday evening was not (and couldn’t have been) taken at face value. Teodoro was quoted as saying he
wanted to devote all his efforts to his campaign, whereas the job of party chair requires attending 24/7 to the
requirements of the other party candidates, especially at the local level, which he could no longer do.
It sounds logical, but the problem is that reports have been swirling around regarding inadequate funding.
There is also the perception that the party machinery, the biggest and most powerful in the country, has not
been cranking as efficiently as it should.
There are party members who don’t seem to have the courage and decisiveness to support Teodoro’s
candidacy for reasons of their own. I was in Bacolod recently, and I noted from the super-large volunteer
group feverishly working for Gibo’s candidacy that Rep. Monico Puentevella, supposedly a Lakas stalwart,
seemed neither here nor there. In Bacolod , it’s citizen power that’s propelling Gibo.
Moreover, former President Fidel Ramos was quoted recently as opining that candidates who lag behind in
surveys should not be worried as it only means they have to work harder. Then in his usual enigmatic way,
FVR said that Gibo would surge forward if he follows the advice he gave him.
There are reports that the 50 governors from various political parties in full support of Gibo are clamoring for
a more definitive role of FVR in his campaign. Time will tell how the Lakas dilemma—a super-machinery
that’s not cranking as well yet, but enough to propel a very marketable candidate if it does—would resolve
itself. The thought has surfaced that perhaps Gibo could be truly the citizens’ candidate, and not just of one
party.
* * *
This Holy Thursday, as we reflect on the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus, I am tempted to think about
how an 86-year-old lady afflicted with glaucoma must be suffering over the way her family is being portrayed
by the camp of the arch-rival of her son, Manny Villar.
Aling Curing Villar used to run a little sari-sari store in Singalong for many years, even when her son Manny
was already Senate President, and had to quit only about two years ago when her vision was blurring.
Now she must be suffering because no less than the LP presidential candidate, Noynoy Aquino, has
assailed her son for allegedly lying. Noynoy and his allies have repeatedly said that the fact that the elder
Villars brought their sick 10-year-old son Danny to FEU Hospital and later, after he died, Funeraria Paz
provided the service, meant that the Villars couldn’t have been poor.
The assertion of the Aquino camp is that the Villars were lying about their economic status, since a truly poor
family would have run for urgent medical needs to the Philippine General Hospital or the San Lazaro
Hospital, and they couldn’t have afforded Funeraria Paz.
Manny Villar, in defense of their family, stressed that his brother was brought to the FEU Hospital ’s charity
ward, not to its pay ward, with the help of a relative who had connections with that hospital. But ultimately
Danny died of leukemia because they couldn’t afford the intensive and expensive treatment that this illness
demanded.
* * *
Frankly my stomach retches over the way the Aquino camp has gone into an extensive investigation of the
details of this episode in utter disregard of compassion and decency.
The elder Villar lady must have suffered immensely from the death of that young boy. Must that rival camp
now rake up all the sordid details?
The aim of the Noynoy camp in playing it up obviously is to prove that Villar was lying and inventing certain
circumstances about his early life of poverty that, as his ads now say, enable him to connect to the greater
masses who are poor.
But surely there must be many other issues far more relevant to the life of the nation that ought to be debated
than the circumstances around the illness and death of a young boy that his 87-year-old mother doubtless
still mourns.
What has happened to decency in our midst? The Aquino camp’s ghoulish treatment of the young boy’s
death is just an example of the pettiness and cattiness that the Noynoy campaign has often displayed.
* * *
My husband was a classmate of Manny Villar in the MBA program in the UP in the early 1970s, and as a
lieutenant colonel then, he recalls how Manny, who went to school by bus then, would hitch a ride with him in
the evenings in his karag-karag car which we described as a three-door sedan because one door couldn’t
open.
My husband knew at that time that his classmate had one truck which he used to haul sand and gravel to
customers. In a recent dzRH interview with Cecile Alvarez and me, Las Piñas Rep. Cynthia Villar revealed
that her husband started his sand-and-gravel business soon after they were married in 1975, and his
deliveries gave him valuable insights into the construction business.
Quickly learning the ropes with the help of lessons from his MBA, Manny turned “this small dream” into a
public company and went into low-cost housing, starting with two houses he sold to OFWs.
* * *
Villar’s empire made three public offerings in 1995, 1996 and 2007. By the second IPO, he was already the
biggest low-cost housing builder around. After the third IPO, they decided that he had the necessary funds to
pursue his dream of running for president.
Their niche market, said Cynthia, also made Manny aware of the problems of the OFWs, especially the
domestics, and since then he has helped them with repatriation and other solutions. Cynthia said Manny “by
himself has a story to tell, a dream that resonates in every Filipino.”
By destroying him, she added, “his political enemies are destroying that dream.”#
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