NOYNOY VS VILLAR, OLD RICH VS NEW RICH
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Manny Villar, at the end of an interview by Domini Torrevillas, said he cannot be as good, as holy, as virtuous
as these hypocrites are (who trump up charges against him).
"It’s funny, and sad, and very frustrating, to hear and read and witness the bashing of candidates in this
campaign. Bashers trump up charges (remember how Manny was being trumpeted as owning a multi-
million dollar worth mansion in Utah ?), and call rival camps immoral," she wrote.
In another light, Amando Doronila, dean of Manila 's professional opinion-editorial writers (or what in the
journalistic world we call op-eds) has a sound theory on why a hate campaign has been lunged at Villar by
his major rival who is backed by the Makati Business Club.
Doronila, wrote in his column "Analysis" that when Villar appeared at the Club's election forum to inform
them of his policy platform last February, he knew he was invading the bastion of the Makati big business
establishments, a territory that was hostile to him. Yet despite that he came.
Though a billionaire, Doronila said that "Villar is a nouveau riche and is not comfortable in the company of
the old-money families dominating the MBC."
There you are coming from the top Philippine opinion writer. There is class war going on between the Aquno
and Villar not just for the presidency but the unseen ogre is the impunity that the old rich or the oligarchs of
which the Cojuangco clan is a lynchpin, is dumping on the new rich.
This conflict began in the colonial era when the "peninsulares", those who were expats from imperial Spain
and the Iberian peninsula, were in social clash with the "insulares", their second and third generation
offsprings often intermarried with Filipino "indios" the term used by those with royal blue Spanish blood to
mean the "indolent" natives).
This tension in Philippine society has very much osmosized into today's modern times. However, this
typecast has somewhat modified into the old rich or the oligarchy and the nouveau riche or the new rich. The
oligarchs are a forever jealous, insecure and wary of the new rich, moreso now, after their experience with
former President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos, a new rich, who dismantled the monopolies controlled by the
oligarchs in the 1970s not exempting his own vice president who was from the Lopez family of the Negros
and Panay provinces.
Fidel V. Ramos was spared by the oligarchs mainly because he was endorsed by one of them namely
Corazon Cojuangco Aquino and he deferred to them especially in the grants of precious independent power
producers contracts during the brownouts from 1988 to 92 and juicy infrastructures such as the light rail
transit and the northern luzon expressway cash cows, and franchises for interisland shipping.
The first to receive the bitter treatment from the Makati Business Club was Joseph Estrada when he ran in
1998. MBC was one of the strategic groups that withdrew support from him in Edsa 2 in 2001. He won, but it
did not take the old rich synarchists, who are now common called "yellow army", to grab power from him to
stage Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as his replacement president in 2001.
Gloria became their natural champion because she was married to an oligarchic heir Jose Miguel Tuazon
Arroyo, a true-blue blood from both paternal (Ignacio Arroyo from the Araneta-Lacson-Arroyo clans) and
maternal (Lourdes Tuazon from the Zaragoza-Tuazon clans).
This dates way way back. Originally of Chinese descent, the Arroyos became politically influential when Jose
Arroyo was elected to the Philippine Senate. His younger brother, Mariano Arroyo, became Governor of Iloilo
province. They later married into other landed families like the Lacsons, Locsins, Aranetas and Tuasons. As
a symbol of their family's power and influence in the past, the fountain at the rotunda in front of the Iloilo
Provincial Capitol is named the “Arroyo Fountain.”
Because Edsa Dos is now more clearly exposed as the conspiracy of the Macapagal-Arroyo and Aquino-
Cojuangco oligarchies, Gloria's administration was a marriage politically as well as economically that
turned sour only in 2005. The political manifestation of this unholy union is Noynoy Aquino's complicity in the
coverup of the fraudulent national canvass of June 2004, and his messy handling of the Hacienda Luisita
security that blew up into a massacre of farmers.
On the other hand the new fountain symbol of its common plunder and corruption is in Tarlac province in
SCTEX extending deep into Hacienda Luisita territories complete with a complimentary overpass complex,
personally requested and followed-up by Cory Cojuangco Aquino from President Arroyo. The original tollway
was only supposed to link Clark EcoZone with the Subic Freeport. The entrance of Tarlac into the picture
was clearly a behest.
In contrast, Villar told Doronila that he was happy to appear at the Makati Business Club for its members to
hear his views and what he plans to do for our country because the business sector is important in
alleviating poverty.”
Doronila quoted Villar, “Given my background, my humble beginnings… I think it would be useful not to dwell
on what makes us so different, but to point out what we have in common.” He said the candidate likened the
election of a president to the selection of a business chief executive officer, who is a “true leader,” taking into
consideration the interests of all the company’s stakeholders.
“Our country has too many complex problems and too many competing interests it will need a strong leader
with a proven track record to even have a chance,” added Villar. Doronila consider that though a swipe at
Nonoy Aquino, who has lack of executive experience
Despite the good intentions, Villar came out of the forum still unpopular with the busines club that is really a
reflection of the Ayalas. His mistake was he promised a “strong and honest government,” if elected.
A strong president reminded them of Marcos. An honest president will just regulate their vested interests.
The oligarchs want a village idiot in the like of Noynoy whom they can clip by the collar to their vested
interests.
Proof of that is the MBC polls among its 800 members. Aquino who did not even attend the forum got 61%
and Villar got only 7 percent, lower than Gilbert Teodoro’s 14 percent.
The peninsulares-insulares, old-new rich syndrome has somewhat become subliminal in the Filipino mind
that even those from the poor and middle class look at society through the same bigoted sunglasses. Well,
count how many teleseryes (soap operas on TV)say "Api kami dahil hindi kami mayaman?" (We are
oppresed because we are not rich?)
A lot of Filipinos in the United States , often reflect the values of the oligarchs in their newfangled lifestyles.
Anyone who is just-of-the-boat is breathed upon this "colonial" air by those that have come earlier than they.
Bobby Reyes calls them the new "makapilis" (brown traitors) who tell on guerillas during the Japanese
occupation of the Philippines .
Instead of helping fellow Filipinos get by and regularize from being illegal aliens, Pinoy quislings make
money out of fingering who in the Philippine community are undocumented. And if you are a new immigrant,
the standard is immediately imposed on you by those who live in homes with cathedral ceilings.
This Holy Week, and especially after the long recession that has hit this country, we can always reflect on our
lack of charity to others regardless of nationality, as many among us, rich or poor, employed or unemployed,
of blue oligarchic or regular commner blood, have experienced home foreclosures and serious financial
diffciculties, since the collapse of Wall Street.
Respect cannot be just demanded from the poor, who the God of Easter showers more in His kingdom.
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