by Lito Banayo
from MALAYA   
How could a piece of property sequestered by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), and a lis pendens annotated upon its transfer certificate of title, land in the hands of a corporation called Crown Asia, owned and controlled by the so-called “brown taipan”, Manuel Villar, who wants to be president of the land?
The 2.18 hectare property is in the vicinity of a swanky golf course called TAT, before that Filipinas Golf Course, and even before that, during the Marcos years, known as Holiday Hills, in the municipality …

GLIMPSES
by Jose Ma. Montelibano
In the alleged attempts to influence Senator Juan Ponce Enrile to stop the investigation of Senator Manuel Villar in the C-5 controversy and to make Senator Dick Gordon withdraw from the presidential race, the phrase “not for sale” had been used as the reason why the two senators did not accept the offers. Of course, Manny Villar denied the allegations of Enrile and Gordon.
If Enrile and Gordon are not for sale, what about other Filipinos? If billions of pesos are being spent in the presidential campaign, what …

The Long View
by Manuel L. Quezon III
from Philippine Daily Inquirer
 http://mlq3.livejournal.com/152370.html
THE REMAINDER OF THE NATIONAL CAMpaign has two parts: from the present time, when the newest surveys have defined the remaining challenges ahead for the two leading candidates, to Holy Week; and then, from the resumption of the campaign after the Comelec ban on campaigning on Holy Thursday and Good Friday (April 1-2), to the end of campaigning on May 8, two days before election day. Straddling these two phases—the middle and final stretches of the presidential and vice-presidential campaigns—are the …

Telltale Signs
by Rodel Rodis
 
The Bible exhorts Christians to “love the sinner but hate the sin.” We are told to hate sin by refusing to take part in it and by condemning it when we see it. We are taught that sin is not to be excused or taken lightly. We are advised to love the sinner by speaking the truth in a spirit of love and to hate the sin by refusing to condone, ignore or excuse it. But that’s the theory.
For the last five years, especially after the “Hello …

by George M. Hizon
July 4, 1946 was the date we got our independence from the United States of America, or was it? Did colonialism really end when America gave us our independence on that said date? Lately, I have seen a series of events which gave me an impression that colonialism still thrives in our beloved country even after more than 500 years of foreign rule. Picture this: in a small internet café at Tomas Morato Ave., a group of noisy and rowdy foreigners (Iranians) shouting at the top of …

PerryScope
by Perry Diaz

A few weeks ago, a group of mostly Dumagat farmers made allegations that presidential candidate Manny Villar and his wife Cynthia grabbed 480 hectares of their land in Norzagaray, Bulacan. According to the farmers, Villar and his wife Cynthia — through their companies, Capitol Development Bank and Manila Brickworks, Inc. — obtained a loan from the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Central Bank of the Philippines) and secured it with the farmers’ land. When the Villars failed to repay the loan, BSP foreclosed the property. In September 2008, the …

ON DISTANT SHORE
by Val G. Abelgas
 
Sen. Manny Villar, being a true Nacionalista Party stalwart, obviously believes in the political philosophy popularized by the late Mr. Nacionalista, Eulogio “Amang” Rodriguez who said: “Politics is addition.”
Having set his sight on the presidency for years, Villar picked people from various persuasions and political beliefs to form his ticket for the May presidential elections, from the extreme left to the extreme right, in pursuit of Amang’s and the Nacionalista Party’s political philosophy.
Villar would make a pact with the Devil himself and give him a …

FRANKLY SPEAKING
by Frank Wenceslao
I’ve held in high regard former UP President Jose Abueva, PhD since we were involved in the “Charter-Change Movement” before the appointment to the Supreme Court of Justice Antonio Eduardo Nachura, among others.
To make his point that Manuel Villar is the most qualified to be the country’s next President, Abueva dismissed the charges of corruption against Villar in one fell swoop, “For all the unrelenting damnation Manny gets for alleged misuse of his power and office, no judgment of his alleged corruption has been made by any …

by Ducky Paredes
from MALAYA
“By wildly lashing out at the three, Villar puts his credibility on the line against that of Gordon. Enrile and Erap.” 
 – Ducky Paredes 
Manny Villar’s problem has always been that the image of himself that he has been projecting has always been too good to be true – a slum kid who swam in a sea of garbage whose parents were so poor that a brother died because they had no money for medicine, gets to be a multi-billionaire and now wants to be President so he can get …

by Lito Banayo
from MALAYA
But for a few paragraphs which I deleted here for brevity’s sake, I am reprinting verbatim from a press statement issued by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile on Thursday, 04 March this year. Every yet undecided voter must get to read Enrile’s statement. My own postscript to this episode follows after.
“I commend Senator Gordon for unmasking the real character of Senator and presidential candidate Manuel B. Villar as a man who thinks he can buy his way to the highest position in the land with his …