Pornographic

NO HOLDS BARRED

Armida Siguion-Reyna

02/09/2010

The last few days saw a flurry of denials regarding the supposedly developing —if not already developed —political alliance between presidential- wannabe-so-badly Manny Villar and Gloria Arroyo. A reaction, perhaps, to the text message that flew from cell phone to cell phone shortly before the week ended: “Now the cat’s out of the bag... Manny Villar is the secret candidate of President GMA... Mike Arroyo himself met with Manny Villar at the house of Mike Defensor last Jan. 7... Villar secretly agreed to make GMA Speaker of the House and protect her should Villar win the presidency... Villar agreed to GMA’s offer of massive logistical support in GMA’s commissioners in the Comelec who will assure Villar’s victory... please pass para di tayo maloko ulit.”

Not true, said Nacionalista Party (NP) spokesman and senatorial candidate Gilbert Remulla: “Realizing that the C-5 mud has not stuck on Villar, no matter how hard they try in besmirching him, the newest LP lie is to link the good senator to the Arroyo administration, when it is the Liberals who were once ‘BFF’ (best friends forever) with Mrs. Arroyo.”

The defense would have worked na sana, for it’s true that the Liberal Party campaigned to elect Gloria Arroyo in 2004 against Fernando Poe Jr., one of them just kept saying “noted” to protestors in the congressional election tribunal as if he had invented the word, another resorted to wholesale skullduggery to deliver his hometown votes close to all for Arroyo and zero for FPJ, a whole lot kept silent even after the revelation of the “Hello Garci” tapes, and so on, and so forth.

Except where was Villar then? Where did he stand? Was he for FPJ? Did he protest, and protest loudly, as if he would kill to defend the country’s honor against the dastardly acts exposed in “Hello Garci?” Nothing of the sort, for then he was neither here nor there, then he was aching to be Senate President and to become such he had to be on the good side of whoever emerged winner and whether genuine victor or not didn’t matter, basta soon as 2004’s results were “official” one crack of dawn, Villar, too, became “BFF” with The Mole of Asia.

And that was how he got be senator in the first place, by stoking fire to install Arroyo as president. I said this here last issue, and will keep on saying so if only to remind all and sundry the man ain’t to be trusted: Villar to great drama transmitted the articles to impeach Joseph Estrada to the Senate soon after his opening prayers as Speaker in 2000, simply as a gimmick. Majority of that pro-Estrada Congress had already agreed to the transmission of the documents after a plenary vote, which never came, kasi nga inunahan na ng paiyak-iyak pa ni Villar. Noon pa man, he’d been casting a moist eye on higher elective posts.

Remulla does not stop with accusing the LP of being a “call center of lies,” he proceeds to remind us “It was during (Villar’s) watch as Senate President that the Joc-joc fertilizer, the NBN-ZTE and other scams were investigated. For upholding Senate independence, he was booted out in what was clearly a Palace-supported coup.”

I don’t know if it’s because he’s not doing well in the senatorial surveys that he can’t quit while he’s ahead, pero sayang. Instead of working on a political accusation that could have stuck, he opens a can of worms for his candidate.

I mean, so, inimbistigahan na pala ng tenure ni Villar as Senate President si Joc-Joc Bolante for the fertilizer scam, bakit pa kinuhang kandidato ni Villar si Bolante as governor for Capiz? So, inimbistigahan na pala’t lahat ng tenure ni Villar as Senate President ang NBN-ZTE scam, why the heck did Villar and company choose to be absent on the last day of the Senate session, when the blue ribbon committee report on the NBN-ZTE deal was also to have been voted on?

They have since then come up with a lot of kesyu-kesyo to explain why they weren’t there, but none of the alibis work for me. They didn’t show up to protect spouses Mike and Gloria Arroyo as well as former Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos, period. Pwede ba, action speaks louder than words?

Speaking of action, it’s not only what Presidential Spokesman Gary Olivar said about Villar that confirms the alliance between the Tondo Boy kuno and the congressman-wannabe-to-avoid-criminal-charges, but the speed with which Olivar said it.

For faster than Remulla could say boo, right after the Pulse Asia survey of Jan. 22 to 26 putting the presidential-wannabe-heir-of-Cory’s-goodness and Villar in a statistical dead heat came out, Olivar attributed the ratings’ surge to NP standard-bearer’s “not running his campaign purely on the basis of attacking the President, which I can’t say, unfortunately, of the other opposition candidates.”

Kung baga, says the former activist, the people don’t like Arroyo being criticized, and since Villar hasn’t been hitting her, that’s why he’s caught up and tied with Noynoy Aquino in the presidential race. What now, that an official member of the Pasig River Mafia has sung out praises of Villar’s “non-negative campaigning style?” No wonder, Villar’s new moniker: “Manny Villaroyo.” Or, “Money Villaroyo.”

I’m being personal, some people say. I should simply accept the fact that the numbers now say he could be president, and failing that, maybe just let the campaign period pass by, dedma. Well, hindi ko kayang tumahimik, especially with the obscene spending to attain a job that pays so little.

Villar has a minimum of 40 TV spots, easily P10 million per day. Even at a discount he’s so far spent P1.5 billion on TV ads, not counting expenditures for other media, the block-time rates and production expenses incurred for the airing of his “true-to-life” saga on Maalaala Mo Kaya as well as Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s TV bio “Crazy for You,” not to mention logistics for almost every Tom, Dick and Harry down the political totem pole. He does this now and we let him get away with it, how much more will the spending in the next presidential elections of 2016 cost us?

The nation is yet to go into full campaign mode and Villar’s latest campaign ditty “Naging Mahirap,” goes pornographic with its exploitation of poverty:

“Nakaligo ka na ba sa dagat ng basura?

Nag-Pasko ka na ba sa gitna ng kalsada

“Ayan ang tanong namin

Tunay ka bang isa sa amin?

“Nalaman mo na bang mapapag-aaral ka niya?

Tutulungan tayo para magkatrabaho?

At ang kanyang plano’y magkabahay tayo.

“Si Villar ang tunay na mahirap

Si Villar ang tunay na may malasakit

Si Villar ang may kakayahan

At gumawa ng sariling pangalan

“Si Manny Villar ang magtatapos ng ating kahirapan”

How can one not comment when at the rate he’s throwing money, we know that si Manny Villar ang lalong magpapahirap sa atin?

(For comments, write to armida114@yahoo.com)

Back to top

For comments about this website:Webmaster@tribune.net.ph
The Daily Tribune © 2006