Tony Lopez speaks!

I know I have been raving about Manila Standard articles recently, particularly by the editorial columnists Emil Jurado and Jojo Robles.

Today's post however, comes from a man named Tony Lopez, publisher-editor of BizNewsAsia weekly newsmagazine and six-time president of the Manila Overseas Press Club or MOPC, founding member of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines, and a long-time member of the National Press Club.

MANNY VILLAR CAN DO IT

Manila Times

Tony Lopez

April 20, 2010

For the first time, a certifiable tycoon is running for president, Senator Manuel Bamba Villar Jr.

Villar’s listed property holding company, Vista Land and Life-scapes, is worth P17.25 billion. He owns about 70 percent of that, or P12 billion.

Financing his own presidential campaign, the senator is his own vested interest. He is not beholden to various business vested interests and lords of all kinds—political lords, warlords or drug lords.

Among the nine presidential candidates, Villar is the only one with the track record and experience to fulfill what he vows to do. “What my opponents have been promising, I have done it,” he says without a touch of hyperbole. “Who can run this country better?” he asks his rapturous audience.

As for Noynoy Aquino, well, he has Time magazine and the description by the prestigious The Economist—“nondescript senator.” Time itself, despite a brave effort to portray him as the savior of the Philippines , concedes Aquino’s is an “a undistinguished political career.”

Villar in the late 1990s built a billion-dollar enterprise with only P10,000 in start-up money. He has built more houses—250,000 units by his own count—than any other developer. He has planted more trees—one million, by his own count—than any other environmentalist and green do-gooder. And in the sense that housing stimulates no less than 18 other industries, he has triggered more economic stimulus than any other CEO, in government or in private business.

Villar is the only prospective Chief Executive since the War to have been both speaker of the House of Representatives and president of the Senate. As speaker, the House received its highest approval rating. As Senate president, the Upper Chamber got its highest approval rating. That’s leadership.

“I am offering to our people my experience as speaker of the House, my experience as Senate president,” Villar told a group of businessmen, Filipino and Chinese, in Greenhills recently.

“I also want to share with you what none of them [the other presidential candidates] can offer,” he deadpanned, “my business experience.” “I know exactly what we, businessmen, want. I am offering you the excitement of living in a country with a very vibrant economy.”

“I make no guarantees,” he cautioned, “but I can tell you, I know how to do it.” “I have done many things in my life that a lot of people know could not be done.” “Gentlemen, ladies, I can do it,” he thundered. The crowd responded with a loud applause.

After his brief speech, Villar fluttered table-to-table, glad-handing and pumping hands. He sat down at the table reserved by juice and airline tycoon Alfred Yao and engaged the businessmen in can-do talk. They included the PCCI’s top brass Mike Varela, Donald Dee, Jun Ortiz Luis, Ed Lacson and Jess Varela. They seem to like Villar earnestly. Then he took his dinner at the table reserved by the Zamora brothers, congressman Ronaldo and businessman Manuel and property magnate Toti Cariño.

“Villar has a broad experience in getting things done,” says Ronnie Zamora. “He has achieved very difficult things.” “Compare him to Noynoy [Aquino, the Liberal Party frontrunner] . When you see him work or not work, you see that he [Aquino] cannot hack it,” the veteran legislator sneers. Ronnie and Noynoy were together in Congress.

“He has the strong will to do what he says he will do,” adds businessman Donald Dee. Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, the nemesis of President Arroyo and First Gentleman Miguel Arroyo, believes that the Nacionalista Party standard-bearer will be a good president.

“Manny will be a very good president,” Cayetano asserts. “Unang-una may takot sa Diyos. He has a passion to get things done. By nature, ayaw niyang nagpapatalo, meaning if people tell him you cannot solve poverty or you cannot finish the land reform or you cannot irrigate this amount of, by nature hahanap ng paraan ‘yan.”

“I’ve seen him do that in the speakership fight—when they said don’t fight Erap because he is a sitting president. I’ve seen that when he appointed me blue ribbon chair despite the protests from Malacañang. And then, nag-aaral talaga siya.”

Cayetano says Villar’s fight to become president and deliver on his promises to the people “is all about legacy. He wants to leave his children a name that means excellence.”

“I don’t think he will be a corrupt president,” the neophyte senator notes. According to him, every person has either a passion, which is positive, or lust, which is negative. “Manny’s is not one of lust,” Cayetano says.

Alan adds: “He is in love with getting things done. He probably will be the only president in a long time that has more money than he will want to get when he becomes president . . . If Villar goes after money when he becomes president, he will only destroy his name, which he will never do.”